ARMENIAN STATE BUDGET-2006 WILL EXCEED $1 BILLION

Regnum, Russia
Oct 13 2005

Armenian state budget-2006 will exceed $1 billion, that is the
first time in the history of the independent country, said Armenian
Prime-Minister Andranik Margaryan. As it has been in the last three
years, this is a social budget.

As a REGNUM correspondent informs, during the discussion of the
budget draft, the government proposed to the parliament to approve
the budget as follows: revenues – 382 billion dram, expenses –
451 billion dram, deficit – 69.9 billion dram. According to Finance
Minister Vardan Khachatryan, this year’s deficit is only 3%, that
meets the requirements of the EU. Also, in 2006 wages and pensions
will be raised.

The prime minister informed that 38% of all the expenses will be put
on social needs. The revenues will be 52.7 billion drachms higher
then in 2005, the deficit decrease has raised from 30% to 47% thanks
to using internal recourses.