ArmInfo.Armenia's budget deficit in January-November 2018 amounted to 51.5 billion drams ($ 106.1 million), decreasing 2.7-fold per year. According to the RA Statistics Committee, the revenues of the Armenian budget increased by 6.2% y-o-y, while expenses, on the contrary, decreased by 1.7%, making 1177.3 billion and 1228.7 billion drams.
In the structure of revenues, the share of taxes and duties decreased in y-o-y terms (January-November 2018 to the same period of 2017) - from 94.2% to 93.8%, in absolute terms increasing by 5.8% to 1104.1 billion drams (against 6.9% growth a year earlier). In particular, the sharp improvement of annual dynamics from negative to positive was recorded only in income from income tax - from a 12.1% decline to 36.5% growth, which amounted to 136.2 billion drams. In addition, the upward trend accelerated revenues from value added tax - from 5.1% to 5.9% - to 393.7 billion drams, income tax - from 1.2% to 5% - to 320.3 billion drams, tax from a turnover - from 20.1% to 25.6% - to 21.1 billion drams. At the same time, growth in revenues from payments for the use of natural resources and environmental conservation slowed down - from 38.8% to 27% - to 45.04 billion drams, from customs duties - from 30.4% to 11.9% - to 73.3 billion drams, from targeted social payments - from 18.3% to 15.4% growth - to 16.04 billion drams, from state duty - from 10.1% to 2.8% - to 33.2 billion drams, from excise tax - from 37.6% to 30.4% - up to 96.2 billion drams. The reduction was recorded only on income from fixed payments - 12-fold to 281.4 million drams.
Against this background, the following items remained in the downward trend in the structure of budget expenditures: subsidies - by 1.8% to 95.3 billion drams (against a decline of 7% a year earlier), grants - by 6.1% to 111.8 billion drams (against 16, 6% recession a year earlier). At the same time, expenditures on benefits and pensions accelerated y-o-y growth from 1.5% to 1.8%, making 380.8 billion drams, and on wages, they accelerated growth from 1.9% to 4.9%, reaching 129 billion. Along with this, spending on the purchase of goods and services has improved - from a 7.8% decline by 1.3% to 129.5 billion drams. Expenditures on non-financial assets expanded from a 12.2% growth to a 30.8% decline, amounting to 87.2 billion drams. To note, the exchange rate of dram as of November 30, 2018 was 485.23 AMD / $ 1, and in January- November the average exchange rate of dram was 482.83 AMD/ $ 1.