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We had positive developments in all directions, so it was a great joy to present the achievements and indices that we had in 2022. The Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan said about this during the regular sittings of the National Assembly on June 14 in the context of presenting the annual report on State Budget 2022 Execution of the Republic of Armenia debated in the National Assembly.

“We come across opinions that the Government has no relation to 12.6% economic growth, and the economy has grown for completely independent reasons of the Government. The Government pursues tax-budgetary policy, implements reforms in different spheres of strategic importance and render various services to the public, including the security. Despite the security and logistic problems, Armenia is a wonderful place for living and being engaged with creative work,” the Minister of Finance noted.

Vahe Hovhannisyan reaffirmed that the low level of corruption in the country, the degree of state government system efficiency, the tax favourable environment, the financial stable system, the rapidly developing public infrastructures and numerous other factors made our country attractive for thousands of tourists, foreigners, including the Russian relocants. In this context the Minister noted: “Armenia always appears among the first three countries of the emigrants from the Russian Federation, we should ask why Azerbaijan is not on that list, we compete with the countries having higher level of development than us, as Turkey, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates.”

The Head of the Ministry also touched upon other debates, which referred to the connection between the RA citizen and the economic growth. We should document the economic growth was reflected in many branches unlike the developments before 2008, when it was concentrated in the sphere of construction. The average monthly nominal salary of 2022 has grown by 15.5% compared to previous year, making 235.576 AMD, and the real salary in case of 8.6% economic growth has grown by 6.3%. The unemployment has decreased by 13-16%. They say that it was provided only by the Russian specialists of the IT sector, but 45.000 new employees 55.000 registered in 2022 are RA citizens, in fact, more than 500 positions have been reduced in 19 institutions of the state administration system, positions have been added in the judicial system because of the probation service introduction and increase of the number of judges. During the financial year, the number of families getting family allowance were reduced by 10.000, becoming 72.748.”

According to the Minister, by the Gini index the Republic of Armenia is among the lowest countries.

Vahe Hovhannisyan confirmed that in the coming years the social policy is aimed at the vulnerable groups. “In 2026, we shall not have extremely poor people and poor pensioners,” Vahe Hovhannisyan said.

The Minister of Finance confirmed that the economic growth not only improved the welfare of the RA citizens, but also made possible to recruit more than 82billion AMD additional tax income, due to which it was possible to raise the pensions ahead of schedule and mitigate the negative consequences of the inflation for the pensioners. In 2022, the budget revenues were 2 trillion 263 million AMD, which is 379 billion AMD more than the index of the previous year. In 2022, the budget revenues were 2 trillion 263 million AMD, which is by 379 billion AMD more than the previous year.

According to the Minister, in 2022 the profit tax share increased in the tax revenue structure, which testifies to the fact that being engaged with economic activity became more profitable.

Vahe Hovhannisyan also referred to themes worrying the Government, and mentioned that 47 billion AMD income tax was returned to the taxpayers, which is 14.7 billion more than the index of the previous year.

The Head of the Ministry did not assess excellent the work done, but confirmed that it is impossible to immediately rectify everything and in all directions. The Government programme should be implemented with its logical sequence.

Vahe Hovhannisyan in his speech also spoke about the priorities announced by the Government in 2022: the security, the development of infrastructure and the education, science, culture and sport, enumerated the financial indices allocated to them.

The minister ended his speech with optimistic index: “Armenia is not a country receiving assistance, but recently became a member of donor community and has its contribution in helping the small countries.”

The MPs sounded questions which related to the factual budget execution, the agriculture, the possibility of removing the turnover tax, the assistance given to Artsakh and other topics.

“The Central Bank (CB) was led by three approaches on the budget execution within the framework of conclusion making on the annual report of the state budget execution: the first – ensuring the stability of med-term debt, the second – the direction and the position of tax-budgetary policy, as well the introduction of the assessments in promoting the long-term growth,” the co-rapporteur CB Governor Martin Galstyan said, presenting the CB conclusion on the annual report of the RA state budget 2022 execution.

According to the co-rapporteur, in 2022, in the world economy, including the RA partner countries being accompanied with geopolitical challenges and essential economic uncertainties slowdown in the rate of economic growth was recorded. Nevertheless, in the partner countries in parallel with essential economic problems the economy of Armenia recorded considerable positive developments in 2022, which to Martin Galstyan’s evaluation, is conditioned by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the essential inflow of the international visitors, workforce, companies and financial capital. In 2022, the economic growth in Armenia almost doubled the targeted index by the draft budget, making 12.6%.

Martin Galstyan, answering the MPs’ questions, gave clarifications on external debt/GDP correlation, the increase of economic potential and behavioral economy.