Armenian Prime Minister: Armenian Government forecasts 3.2% GDP growth in FY2017

ArmInfo. Over the past two years, Armenia's economy has experienced some shocks due to the negative phenomena on the global market, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said in Parliament on October 31.  

He noted that those shocks include the economic downturn in Russia and the fall in the world copper prices. In this situation, the Armenian Government's fiscal policy aimed at ensuring economic growth and sustainable development was not cyclic and resulted in inevitable rise of the country's state debt.      

In 2017, the Government will take all necessary steps to ensure macroeconomic stability needed for creation of economic growth conditions. "However, the Law 'On State Debt' implies restrictions, the budget of 2017 provides for ways to reduce the deficit and stabilize the state debt," the Prime Minister said. 

He pointed out that for the next fiscal year the Government has planned a 3.2% GDP growth. Given the current economic situation and the economic passivity caused by the elections, a lot of efforts should be exerted to achieve that goal. "We will do everything possible to achieve the target", he stressed.

The implementation of the fiscal policy should be transparent and clear to each taxpayer and member of the society. "Our approach is clear - all the funds paid by the taxpayers to the state budget should be spent in a proper manner and the results should be tangible," he said, adding that the budget 2017 is based on the data of the budget 2016. The state budget deficit is calculated with due regard for the taxes-GDP ratio and possible growth of revenues. Karapetyan stressed the need to prevent pressure on business. For that purpose, a platform will be created in 2017 to activate the economic situation.

To note, in FY2017 the expenditures of the state budget will be 1 trillion 360 billion AMD, revenues - 1 trillion 210 billion AMD, deficit - 150.1 bln AMD. 93.8% of the revenues will be taxes and duties, and 2.7% and 3.5% will be official grants and other revenues. In 2017, the amount of taxes and duties will be 1 trillion 135 billion AMD. Grants will total nearly 31 bln AMD and other revenues - 44.1 bln AMD.  Revenues will grow by 70 bln AMD as compared to 2016, and expenditures will drop by 100 bln AMD.

As regards the state budget of 2016, expenditures make up 1 trillion 377 billion AMD, revenues - 1 trillion 186.3 bln AMD, and the deficit - 197 bln AMD. The real GDP growth for 2016 is 2.2%, GDP deflator index - 4%, 12-month inflation - 4% (+1.5%), and the state budget deficit - 3.5% of GDP.