10:25,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s 2022 state budget draft envisages increasing the capital expenditures by 55%, they will comprise 347 billion drams, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the joint sessions of the Parliamentary standing committees, debating the budget draft.
“Today we are presenting the first budget of the government’s 5-year action plan which is called to create firm grounds for the implementation of the action plan. We forecast 7% economic growth for 2022, despite the fact that most of 2021 was marked by instable political and security environment, today our economy is surpassing all the growth forecasts made for 2021. On the other hand, the government has more hopes with the results of the year”, the PM said.
He informed that in September 2021 Armenia registered a record high number of paid jobs – a total of 651,141 paid jobs. Pashinyan stated that there hasn’t been such a higher figure in Armenia. This year’s figure is higher from the last year’s one by 3%.
The PM said that despite the 6.4% inflation this year, the gross wage fund increased by 15.3% in September compared to September 2020, and the salary per capita increased by 11.9% or 23,782 drams. The export grew by more than 20%. The construction volumes increased by 7% this year, the growth of services comprised over 5% as of September. “These factors make the target of the 7% economic growth realistic, especially when they have already started and I hope that several major investment programs will be successfully completed, the target of which is to make Armenia from a country exporting mine resources to a country having a long chain of strong metallurgy and metal processing as much as possible”, he said.
According to the draft, the 2022 budget revenues comprise 1 trillion 946 billion drams, which is higher by 17% compared to 2021 and by 25% compared to 2020. “The expenditures comprise 2 trillion 190 billion drams, which is higher by 10% compared to 2021 and by 16% compared to 2020. The capital expenditures for 2022 comprise 347 billion drams, which is higher by 55% compared to 2021 and by 53% compared to 2020”, Pashinyan said.
The PM said that the 2022 state budget is based on 3 priorities – improving the security system, developing infrastructures and upgrading education and science.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan