YEREVAN. – The 2017 budget of Armenia is conservative, but it is a stabilization budget, in one word, whose basis is real projections. 

Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan on Friday stated the aforesaid at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs of the National Assembly (NA).

He underscored the need to steer clear of external shocks, since Armenia is a “dollarized” country.

In Aramyan’s words, the government will try to maintain Armenia’s national debt growth at a relatively conservative rate for the coming year, as compared to the previous years.

The minister noted that changes are observed in the makeup of the country’s economy, the emphasis is placed on export sectors, and this strengthens the invulnerability of the economy. 

The Armenian official expressed a view that the overall external economic climate in 2017 will be better than the previous year.

“Russia, which is our [i.e. Armenia’s] main trading partner, also will have a positive economic growth, which will have a positive impact on us, as well,” added Vardan Aramyan. “Over the past eight months, we already have a 60-percent export growth toward Russia.” 

The aforementioned committee gave a positive assessment to the draft of the 2017 State Budget, and decided to put it on the agenda of the NA four-day sessions.