10:53, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has envisaged 554 billion drams for defense expenditures under the 2024 budget, finance minister Vahe Hovhannisyan has said.

“The Ministry of Defense expenditures in 2024 amount to 554 billion drams. This will be a seven percent increase compared to the 2023 defense spending, and as a result the 2024 defense spending will amount to 5,3% of GDP, decreasing by 0,3 percentage point compared to 2023,” he said in parliament during debates of the 2024 state budget.

Asked to elaborate on the decrease against the GDP, the minister said, ” When we say it has decreased 0,3 percent, it doesn’t mean that the money has decreased, it’s just that our revenues are growing faster than the expenditures that we have decided to allocate for the defense sector.”