“The Armenian Government is now working at the 2010 draft budget, which will be a realistic and modest one,” RA Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan told reporters. He pointed out effective budget implementation this year. “All the payments are being effected, and the crisis does not affect the current budget performance. In some cases, social expenditures even register a balance,” the Minister said. Davtyan stressed that huge budgetary funds, 170bln AMD, are available now.

“It is another matter that the funds are being spent with austerities. For example, expenditures totaling 93bln AMD have been postponed until the 4th quarter. However, we added the funds directed to the disaster zone and to the real economic sector,” Davtyan said. He pointed out that, instead of the 93bln AMD, 40-50bln AMD will be directed to other sectors. As a result, he annual on-budget expenditures will total 905-910bln AMD instead of the planned 945bln AMD.

As to whether the Government rules out a proposal for a budget sequester, the Minister said that the Government has no such intentions now though nothing can be ruled out. On the contrary, the Government is implementing an expansionary policy. “A budget sequester would be one more blow on the country’s GDP, and the economic decline would be much larger than 18.5%,” Davtyan said.