Statistics: In Jan-Aug 2016 budget deficit slackened y-o-y growth to 35.1%

ArmInfo. In Jan-Aug 2016, the budget deficit of Armenia amounted to 131 bln AMD ($272 mln), growing 35.1% as compared to Jan-Aug 2015. According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the budget revenues dropped by 1% (versus 2% rise a year before) to 733.4 bln AMD. The budget expenditures rose by 3.2% (versus 16.2% growth a year before) to 864.4 bln AMD.

As regards the monthly dynamics, in Jan 2016 the budget surplus totaled 21.3 bln AMD and in Feb 2016 the budget deficit was 35.3 bln AMD. In March the deficit declined to 23.8 bln, in April it grew to 26.5 bln AMD, in May it dropped to 10.8 bln AMD. In June it declined to 9.5 bln AMD, growing 3.4-fold in July. In August, it fell by 71.3% to 9.2 bln AMD amid 6.6% rise in revenues and 13.3% decline in expenditures (to 100 bln AMD and 109.2 bln AMD, respectively).

Taxes and duties accounted for 94.9% of revenues (vs 93.7% in Jan-Aug 2015), increasing 0.4% in absolute terms to 696.1 bln drams (vs 1.3% growth a year ago). In particular, the revenues from customs duties dropped by 15.1% to 35.2 bln AMD, those from VAT fell by 12.7% to 242.2 bln AMD, the shortfall in income tax made up 26.5 mln AMD (versus negative 130 mln AMD a year before), payments related to use of natural resources fell by 11.9% to 16.7 bln AMD.

The revenues from turnover tax grew by 32.5% to 9.8 bln AMD, profit tax - by 32.2% to 93.7 bln AMD, target social payments - by 23.5% to 8.3 bln AMD, excise tax - by 16.6% to 35.4 bln AMD, mandatory social security payments fell by 14.6% to 5.8bln drams. In the meantime, the revenues from income tax increased moderately by 6.4% to 211.9 bln AMD, fixed payments - by 2% to 2.1bln drams, and revenues from state duties increased by 1.2% to 20.6 bln AMD.

The expenditures in all items saw high growth rates, except for the expenditures on purchase of commodities and services, which fell by 36.3% to 97.7 bln AMD, and expenditures related to non-financial assets, which dropped by 20.3% to 29.3 bln AMD.

In Jan-Aug 2016, expenditures on subsidies increased 4.5-fold to 74.8 bln AMD and the interest payments for the state debt - by 30.6% to 55.5 bln AMD, with 30.2 bln AMD of this amount being the interest payments for the foreign debt with a 52.2% year over year growth. In the structure of expenditures, 101.3 bln AMD was allocated for grants (up 9.6% y-o-y), 265 bln AMD - for allowances and pensions (up 3.5%), 88.3 bln AMD - for salaries (up 2.8%).