Armenian parliament adopts 2024 budget

YEREVAN, December 7. /ARKA/. By a vote of 71 to 25 the Armenian Parliament has adopted today the state budget for 2024.

Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan said the budget calls for 2 trillion 723 billion drams in revenues and 3 trillion 206 billion drams in spending.

He noted that the government plans to collect 2 trillion 613 billion drams in taxes (24.9% of GDP), up from 2 trillion 566 billion drams, projected by the 2023 budget.

He said the budget earmarks also about 695 billion drams (6.6% of GDP) as capital expenditures, by 27% more than the figure projected for the outgoing year and some 42% of capital expenditures will be channeled into national defense. Overall, the defense expenditures will rise next year by 7 percent to 554 billion drams ($1.38 billion or 5.3 percent of GDP, down by 0.3 percentage points from 2023).

"The state budget deficit will increase by about 142 billion drams compared to the initial draft and will amount to about 483 billion drams or 4.6% of GDP. However, the debt-GDP ratio at the end of 2024 will not change and will stand at 48.3%," he said.

According to him, the debt-to-GDP ratio will continue to steadily improve and will be around 44% in 2024, which will significantly mitigate the debt's sensitivity to exchange rate fluctuations ($1 - AMD 402.95). -0-