PRESS RELEASE
The Civilitas Foundation

One Northern Avenue, suit 30
Yerevan, Armenia
tel: +37410500119
email: communications@civilitasfoundation.org

What the Government Spends: A visual Guide to Armenia’s Budget.

Armenia’s residents know how the government collects taxes, but few
know how those revenues are spent. For that reason, the Civilitas
annual report ARMENIA IN 2009: PROMISE AND REALITY, prepared a
well-researched and detailed poster providing a visual explanation of
Armenia’s 2010 budget.

The budget is divided into 11 fundamental categories:

Social security – 649 mln USD

General Public Services – 371 mln USD

Defense – 360 mln USD

Support to Different Economic Spheres – 300 mln USD

Education- 265 mln USD

Public Order, Security and Justice- 150 mln USD

Health – 147 mln USD

Housing and Utilities -123 mln USD

Reserve Funds – 58 mln USD

Sport and Culture – 43 mln USD

Environmental Protection 16 mln USD

Those eleven categories (with the exception of the Reserve Funds) are
divided into the relevant sub-categories. A careful study of the
budget shows for example that the reserved funds are equal to the
total funds the government intends to spend on sports, culture and the
environment.

Approximately one-fourth of the budget is directed to the social
security sector, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, because Armenia
is an aging country with over half a million people receiving old-age
pensions. In addition, due to deep poverty, thousands of families
continue to receive family benefits.

Also, the huge amount spent on defense shouldn’t seem unusual,
because Armenians are in fact at war with Azerbaijan, and must also
compete in the arms race.

At first glance, there are also numbers that don’t seem so
reasonable. For example, Armenia spends twice as much on police as on
national security even as our country is surrounded by at least two
hostile countries — Turkey and Azerbaijan – and with whom we share
85% of our total borders.

The poster also demonstrates that according to official forecasts,
Armenia’s external debt has already reached $3,659,000,000, which is
about half again as much as the budget itself.

A country’s budget reflects both its priorities and its
limitations. This poster, which is available in English and Armenian at
ories/budget_2010.pdf,
highlights both Armenia’s choices and its existing capacity.