ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT PLANS NO BUDGET SEQUESTER
Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Aug 28 2009
Armenia
"The Armenian Government is now working at the 2010 draft budget, which
will be a realistic and modest one," RA Minister of Finance Tigran
Davtyan told reporters. He pointed out effective budget implementation
this year. "All the payments are being effected, and the crisis does
not affect the current budget performance. In some cases, social
expenditures even register a balance," the Minister said. Davtyan
stressed that huge budgetary funds, 170bln AMD, are available now.
"It is another matter that the funds are being spent with
austerities. For example, expenditures totaling 93bln AMD have
been postponed until the 4th quarter. However, we added the funds
directed to the disaster zone and to the real economic sector,"
Davtyan said. He pointed out that, instead of the 93bln AMD,
40-50bln AMD will be directed to other sectors. As a result, he
annual on-budget expenditures will total 905-910bln AMD instead of
the planned 945bln AMD.
As to whether the Government rules out a proposal for a budget
sequester, the Minister said that the Government has no such intentions
now though nothing can be ruled out. On the contrary, the Government
is implementing an expansionary policy. "A budget sequester would be
one more blow on the country’s GDP, and the economic decline would
be much larger than 18.5%," Davtyan said.