There will be no total reduction of budget expenditures in Armenia in 2022. Minister of finance Tigran Khachatryan said this Monday at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs of the National Assembly during the debates on the implementation of the government's 2021 program.

According to the minister, the authorities will take new loans, if necessary, everything will depend on the collection of taxes, but now it is impossible to accurately predict this dynamics.

"But we are not going to take loans to reduce expenses. The economy must be assisted," Khachatryan explained.

He reminded that the IMF, from which Armenia takes budget loans in case of lack of funds, believes that such funds can be drawn without harming the country's solvency.

"In 2022, the spending plan will increase by about 60 percent," said the finance minister.

He stressed that the Central Bank of Armenia has already considerably increased the refinancing rate to up to 9.25 percent, and this will curb demand for goods and services by reducing lending.

"At the same time, if we add to that the reduction of budget expenditures, the inflation will decrease more strongly [in Armenia]. But in that case, the economy will simply not be able to ‘breathe,’" said Tigran Khachatryan.