ArmInfo. In 2021, capital construction expenditures in Armenia are planned at such a level to ensure economic growth. On November 6, RA Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan spoke about this at a hearing in parliamentary commissions on the draft state budget for 2021.
According to him, given the negative developments in 2020, which are caused by the COVID-19 epidemic and the hostilities, the main task of the government is to achieve results that will give an opportunity to start the economic recovery, which, in turn, it will allow solving many problems facing the state. In this context, the expenditure side of the state budget has not changed. There is an opinion about the need to cut spending on capital construction, and allocate the freed up resources to other areas, but the cut in expenditures, according to the minister, cannot be viewed as a factor contributing to GDP growth. Atom Janjughazyan stressed that in 2021, it is planned to allocate about AMD 210 billion, or 3.2% of nominal GDP, for capital expenditures. The volume of expenditures for the implementation of priority programs will amount to 81 billion drams against 60 billion drams this year. In this matter, it is important to correctly assess the capabilities of both customers and contractors and service providers. For this reason, the proposed option is of an intermediate nature.
As for current expenditures, as noted by the head of the Ministry of Finance, a smooth budgeting model has been chosen on this issue. It does not imply the attraction of additional funding, but it will provide an opportunity to fulfill all obligations. The minister stated that the program budgeting model has already become an established fact, the main goal of which is the transition from mechanical financing to the evaluation of the results of financing, to obtain the maximum result from each invested dram.
