YEREVAN. – The purpose of the Armenian government is to keep defense spending at 4% of GDP. Armenian Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan said during a briefing presenting government's medium-term expenditure program for 2018-2020.

According to him, for 2016 this ratio was 3.71%. On the other hand, the growth of GDP was 0.2%, instead of the planned 2.2% while defense spending was fully preserved.

“But we will keep the target figure of 4%,” the minister stressed. Moreover, the government plans to increase expenditures by 26-27 billion drams, Aramyan added.