DISCUSSIONS ON THE STATE BUDGET FOR FY 2010 KICK OFF AT THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Lena Badeyan

"Radiolur"
30.10.2009 15:38

The discussion of the draft budget for Fiscal Year 2010 kicked off at
the Standing Committees of the National Assembly today. The discussions
will continue through November 13, after which the Deputies will send
written proposals to the Government and the amended draft budget will
be resubmitted to the Parliament for ratification.

Presenting the peculiarities of the state budget for FY2010, Chairman
of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs
Gagik Minasyan said: "We will come out of the crisis and implement
a post-crisis budgetary policy."

Speaking about the anti-crisis program of the Government, Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan said "those measures are already yielding
tangible results." The Prime Minister promised that the social
expenditures would not be cut in 2010.

Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan noted that "when working out the
draft budget, the government has taken note of the shortcomings of
the previous budget and has not included optimistic numbers in the
draft budget." "This is the reason for the cautious predictions of
economic growth," he said.

"In 2010 we’ll have at least 1-2% GDP growth. This is a very cautious
number, and it’s not ruled out that in case of optimistic economic
developments, this will become the minimal level predicted for the
coming year."

The Minister informed that in 2010 Armenia’s foreign debt would total
3 billion 960 million AMD, which makes 16.3% of the GDP.