6.6% GROWTH IN CBA EXPENDITURES ENVISAGED IN 2007
Noyan Tapan
Nov 01 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. By the 2007 draft state budget,
the overall administrative expenditures of the Central Bank of Armenia
(CBA) make 3.56 billion drams, which exceeds by 6.6% this year’s budget
of the CBA. During the discussion of the 2007 draft state budget in the
RA National Assembly standing committees on November 1, CBA Chairman
Tigran Sargsian said that this growth in expenditures is conditioned
by setting up several new structures within the CBA. Particularly,
a unit on fight against money laundering and terrorism and a new
supervisory body have been created. Besides, the Armenian-German
Fund that operates as part of the CBA and aims to provide credits to
small and medium business will implement a new program on crediting
the small energy from 2007. According to T. Sargsian, in 2007, the
CBA staff maintenance expenditures will increase by 6.5% , expenses
on information and professional literature – by 10%, expenses on
communication means – by 15%, etc. The expenditures on capital
investments and purchase of fixed assets will increase by 31.5% in
2007 on 2006. This is due to construction of a new building in the
area adjacent to the building of the CBA: the construction started
in 2006 and will finish in 3 years. This will allow to unify all the
administrative bodies of the financial system, while the area currently
occupied by the CBA will be transferred to the government. In 2007,
the CBA will start the construction of its branch in Shushi to ensure
the security of dram circulation in Nagorno Karabakh. According to
T. Sargsian, given the fact that the Armenian dram is the official
means of payment of Nagorno Karabakh, it is expedient to have a
structure there for accumulation of some part of the dram reserves.