Armenian Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan announced that the chronic underperformance of capital expenditures has been overcome in the past three years. He made this statement at a joint session of the Standing Committees of the National Assembly.
"In 2021, the efficiency rate of capital expenditures was 92.5%, in 2022 it was 94.9%, and now we have improved it to 95.8%. The importance lies not only in the efficiency percentage but also in the absolute figures," Hovhannisyan noted.
The minister explained that the increase in capital expenditures is due to higher spending on defense, improvements to the road network, urban development, the rehabilitation of the irrigation system, enhancing the seismic safety of schools, and the acquisition of the Armenian Embassy building in the United Kingdom.
For instance, an additional 24.4 billion drams (over $50 million) was allocated for road network improvements, 8.5 billion drams (over $10 million) for the acquisition of the embassy building in the United Kingdom, and 8.6 billion drams (over $10 million) for urban development.
BMG reminds that the revenues of the Armenian state budget for 2024 are planned at 2.723 trillion drams (over $6.8 billion), with tax revenues and duties making up 2.613 trillion drams. The expenditure part of the state budget is planned at 3.206 trillion drams (about $8 billion), of which capital expenditures will be around 695 billion drams (about $1.7 billion).
The budget deficit will amount to approximately 483 billion drams (over $1.2 billion), or 4.6% of GDP.
