ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES 2007 BUDGET

Associated Press
Nov 29 2006

Armenia’s parliament on Wednesday passed a 2007 budget with a deficit
equivalent to US$155 million (euro118 million).

The budget, approved in a 77-3 vote with six abstentions, foresees
revenues of 490.2 billion drams (US$1.11 billion; euro840 million)
and put spending at 558.7 billion drams (US$1.27 billion; euro970
million) — figures similar to this year’s.

The deficit in the poor Caucasus Mountain nation’s budget blueprint
amounts to 2.3 percent of gross domestic product that is expected to
reach 2.9 trillion drams (US$6.6 billion; euro5 billion), growth of
9 percent over 2006.

Military spending is set at just over 100 billion drams (US$228
million; euro173 million) in the ex-Soviet republic, whose dispute
with neighboring Azerbaijan over the Armenian-controlled territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh keeps fears of a major new armed conflict simmering
12 years after a cease-fire ended a six-year war.

Oil-rich Azerbaijan’s parliament passed a 2007 budget Tuesday
that foresees military and security spending of about US$1 billion
(euro760 million).