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AID-DEPENDENT ARMENIA NUDGES UP SPENDING BEFORE POLL
Trust Law
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/aid-dependent-armenia-nudges-up-spending-before-poll
Dec 5 2012
* Budget deficit seen at 2.6 pct of GDP in 2013 vs expected 2.8 pct in 2012
* Revenues, spending to rise
YEREVAN, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Armenia's parliament adopted a 2013 budget
on Wednesday that aims to hold down the fiscal deficit and assumes
the economy, which depends heavily on aid and on Russian investment,
will grow by 6.2 percent.
With a presidential election due in February 2013, state spending was
set at 1.153 trillion drams ($2.8 billion) and revenues estimated
at 1.033 trillion drams, both higher than in 2012. Social spending
accounts for more than 40 percent.
The government called the budget "balanced and realistic."
"The government has refrained from the temptation to submit a big
rise (in social spending) ahead of the (presidential) election,"
Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan said on Tuesday during discussion of
the budget draft in parliament.
President Serzh Sarksyan plans to run in the poll for a second term.
The economy of 3.2 million people, whose income is supported by
remittances and construction, averaged a rapid growth rate of 12
percent from 2000 to 2007 but shrank by more than 14 percent in 2009
after the global crisis hit.
The International Monetary Fund has criticised the business culture
of the ex-Soviet republic, saying corruption is widespread in
business-related state agencies.
In 2011, foreign direct investment of $539 million amounted to 5.3
percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and the IMF expects it to
reach $574 million in 2012 with the telecom, energy and mining sectors
the top investment targets.
The 2013 budget targets a fiscal deficit of 2.6 percent of GDP, from
2.8 percent expected this year. The government estimates the economy
to grow at around 7.0 percent this year, after GDP grew 9.3 percent
in the first nine months of 2012 compared with 6.4 percent in the
same period of 2011.
The IMF said earlier this month that Armenia's economy would grow by
around 5.0 percent in 2012 and 5.8 percent in 2013.
The 2013 budget forecasts inflation of 4.0 percent, give or take 1.5
percentage points, the same as in 2012. Annual inflation in November
2012 was 3.6 percent.
($1=407.2 drams) (Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian; Writing by Margarita
Antidze in Tbilisi; Editing by Jason Bush/Ruth Pitchford)
Trust Law
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/aid-dependent-armenia-nudges-up-spending-before-poll
Dec 5 2012
* Budget deficit seen at 2.6 pct of GDP in 2013 vs expected 2.8 pct in 2012
* Revenues, spending to rise
YEREVAN, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Armenia's parliament adopted a 2013 budget
on Wednesday that aims to hold down the fiscal deficit and assumes
the economy, which depends heavily on aid and on Russian investment,
will grow by 6.2 percent.
With a presidential election due in February 2013, state spending was
set at 1.153 trillion drams ($2.8 billion) and revenues estimated
at 1.033 trillion drams, both higher than in 2012. Social spending
accounts for more than 40 percent.
The government called the budget "balanced and realistic."
"The government has refrained from the temptation to submit a big
rise (in social spending) ahead of the (presidential) election,"
Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan said on Tuesday during discussion of
the budget draft in parliament.
President Serzh Sarksyan plans to run in the poll for a second term.
The economy of 3.2 million people, whose income is supported by
remittances and construction, averaged a rapid growth rate of 12
percent from 2000 to 2007 but shrank by more than 14 percent in 2009
after the global crisis hit.
The International Monetary Fund has criticised the business culture
of the ex-Soviet republic, saying corruption is widespread in
business-related state agencies.
In 2011, foreign direct investment of $539 million amounted to 5.3
percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and the IMF expects it to
reach $574 million in 2012 with the telecom, energy and mining sectors
the top investment targets.
The 2013 budget targets a fiscal deficit of 2.6 percent of GDP, from
2.8 percent expected this year. The government estimates the economy
to grow at around 7.0 percent this year, after GDP grew 9.3 percent
in the first nine months of 2012 compared with 6.4 percent in the
same period of 2011.
The IMF said earlier this month that Armenia's economy would grow by
around 5.0 percent in 2012 and 5.8 percent in 2013.
The 2013 budget forecasts inflation of 4.0 percent, give or take 1.5
percentage points, the same as in 2012. Annual inflation in November
2012 was 3.6 percent.
($1=407.2 drams) (Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian; Writing by Margarita
Antidze in Tbilisi; Editing by Jason Bush/Ruth Pitchford)