At the joint sitting of the RA National Assembly Standing Committees the discussion of the RA Draft Law “On the 2019 State Budget of the Republic of Armenia” has launched.
Acting Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan presented the draft, noting that while drawing up the 2019 budget, three key features were taken into account: the first is the application of new fiscal rules based on debt stabilizing fiscal policy. The second feature is presenting the budget in program format, and the third one is related to off-budget accounts: from now on they will be included in the state budget draft.
According to the presented draft, the expected capital expenditures in GDP in 2018 will be 2.4 percent for the year of 2018, and 3.2 percent - for 2019; the deficit / GDP ratio will be 1.7 and 2.2 percent respectively. The expectation for current expenditure / GDP ratio in 2018 is 21.2 percent, and in 2019 - 21.1 percent. Tax revenues / GDP ratio will comprise 20.3 and 20.7 percent respectively.
The deficit will be AMD 161 billion in 2018, and AMD 152 billion - in 2019.
According to the draft, total revenues will make AMD 1 trillion 491 billion next year, of which tax revenues - AMD 1 trillion 399 billion, other revenues - AMD 52.4 billion, official grants - AMD 39 billion.
In 2019, it is planned to use AMD 1 trillion 423 billion for current expenditures and about AMD 220 billion - for capital expenditures.
According to Atom Janjughazyan, draft expectation is that as a result of debt operations, Government debt for 2019 will make about USD 6 billion 953 million or 49.7 percent of GDP.
“Armenia remains a country with a low debt burden on all the indicators and we expect that it will continue to be so” - said Acting Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan.
Attached: the presentation on the RA Draft Law “On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2019”.