From October 30, Preliminary Debates of the RA Draft Law on the "RA State Budget for 2018” have begun in the RA NA Standing Committees. Within two weeks, all the provisions of the country's main financial document will be discussed in the Committees, suggestions will be submitted, which will be referred to during the Parliamentary Session.
At the joint session of the RA NA Standing committees, the RA Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan presented the key objectives of the Draft Law on the “ RA State Budget for 2018” and expressed hope that the discussions of the draft law would be effective.
“I am convinced that as a result of the discussions, we will have a budget for 2018 which at this time will best express the interests of our country and citizens and ensure the course of our development programs”, noted Prime Minister.
While introducing the RA Draft Law on the “RA State Budget for 2018”, the RA Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan stressed that an attempt was made to design the 2018 budget with one general rule: to ensure stable, long-term economic growth.
Touching upon the economic growth indicators in 2017, Aramyan said that the economic activity index for 9 months amounted to 5.1%, which allows to expect 4-4.3% economic growth for the year.
The Minister reminded that in the budget for 2017 the government predicted 3.2% economic growth, but the growth would be higher. As to 2018, according to the Minister, it is expected that the economic growth will be within 4.5%.
“If we want to give permanent solutions to different issues, including social issues, it’s important for us to have a stable, high economic growth. We should seek for 5% economic growth, rather than 3%.The 3% economic growth does not enable us to steadily solve our problems”- noted the Minister and added that in order to ensure high economic growth, first of all, it is necessary to promote the development of infrastructures. The main capital expenditures for the economic bloc under the 2018 budget will go in three directions: road construction, transport, water economy and energy.
“In fact, if we tend to have high economic growth, the infrastructures should provide that opportunity. For example, if we take no actions in terms of our irrigation systems and they remain in such poor conditions, water losses will be high, there will be many arid lands, no matter how the government wants to subsidize the agriculture with other tools, the result will not increase. In order for the outcome to be maximum, investments in infrastructures are needed”-said the Minister.
The Minister stressed that the fiscal policy in different economic cycles must be prudent, the latter derives from the fact that it should always be a factor promoting the economic growth. “Otherwise, we are having problems both in medium term and long term”- underlined the Minister.
According to the Minister, in 2018 it is envisaged to provide 1 trillion 307 billion income, to realize expenditures of 1 trillion 464 billion, the deficit will be about AMD 157 billion.
Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan stressed the importance of stabilizing public debt for sustainable economic growth. According to him, the Government tried to present a budget that will allow to reduce the state debt /GDP indicator by one percentage point in 2018.
