The budget of Armenia for 2018 is based on the strategy of increasing prices

ArmInfo. The budget for 2018 is  the budget for raising prices, "economist Vahagn Khachatryan said at  a press conference on January 16. According to him, the sources of  the current situation with the rise in prices for Armenia's  consumption were traced back to the end of 2017, when the government  of the republic presented the draft budget for 2018, announcing  expectations for an increase in state budget revenues by 100 billion  AMD.

According to him, as early as 2017, the country's expert community  should have sounded the alarm, since it was already obvious then that  the new government's Tax Code and budget for 2018 set the goal to  increase budget revenues mainly by expanding the tax base. Thus,  according to the expert, increasing the excise tax on diesel fuel,  the Armenian government expects an additional 7.35 billion drams in  the year 2018, gasoline will provide 1.93 billion AMD, and tobacco  products 5.41 billion drams. "The government sets a single goal - to  solve fiscal issues, Armenian parliamentarians knew about this, but  we never saw any heated discussions," the expert said.

At the same time, as Vahagn Khachatryan stressed, inflation under the  conditions of a civilized economy is manageable and, even in a number  of cases, can stimulate its growth. However, in Armenia, in the  presence of monopolies and the absence of equal competitive  conditions, according to the expert, the global canons do not work.  "The government only works to ensure budget revenues, and how, and at  the expense of what - it does not matter, for this it is ready for  anything," the economist said.