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The RA Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan noted that after the economic downturn due to the pandemic and the 44-day war in 2020, the RA economy entered the stage of recovery in 2021, registering 5.7% economic growth. The economic growth was accompanied by the recovery in domestic demand. There was some improvement in the external position of the economy in 2021. The deficit of current account was 3.7% of GDP.

The annual report on the State Budget Execution of the Republic of Armenia for 2021 on revenues is 1.683.831.463.2 thousand AMD, on expenditures – 2.004.300.990.4 thousand AMD, the budget deficit – 320.469.527.2 thousand AMD.

According to Tigran Khachatryan, the planned expenditures were fully spent. The public debt service has become manageable.

In line with the direction of fiscal policy, tax revenues in GDP have improved, and the expenditures in GDP have decreased. As a result of tax administration and legislative amendments, the tax/GDP ratio improved by 0.3% and amounted to 22.7% of GDP in 2021. The share of the state budget expenditures in GDP decreased by 1.9 percentage point compared to 2020, amounting to 28.7%, in which the share of current expenditures decreased by 1.4 percentage point, amounting to 25.6%.

The program indicators formed as a result of the amendments within the powers reserved for the Government by the legislation on revenues and expenditures approved by the Law on the RA State Budget for 2021 were fulfilled by 99.6% on the revenues, amounting to 1.683.8 billion AMD, on the expenditures – 97.8%, amounting to 2.004.3 billion AMD. The full and timely fulfillment of obligations assumed by the state bodies within the framework of the state budget expenditure programs was ensured in the reporting year.

Compared to 2020, in 2021, the share of tax revenues and state duties in the state budget revenues increased by 5.5 percentage point, and the shares of official grants and other revenues decreased by 2.7 and 2.8 percentage points. Tax revenues and state duties of 1.587.0 billion AMD entered in the RA state budget during 2021, which 100.2% ensured the index defined by the adjusted plan. Tax revenues and state duties increased by 14.6% or 201.7 billion AMD compared to 2020. An increase in revenues was registered on almost all types of taxes in the reporting year.

Answering Gevorg Papoyan’s question, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, the Minister of Finance noted that it is difficult to predict what the dram exchange rate will be in our country by the end of this year.

The Governor of the RA Central Bank Martin Galstyan referred to the Armenian dram exchange rates and stressed the importance of ensuring its stabilization.

In his speech, Gevorg Papoyan emphasized the high performance indicator of the state budget for 2021, as well as underlined the high performance of capital expenditures, which, according to him, is very important for the development of the economy.

The Chair of the Standing Committee also referred to a number of issues and pointed out certain ways to resolve them. He stressed the importance of reducing unemployment, which is recorded in the document.

The Committee members endorsed the annual report on the State Budget Execution of the Republic of Armenia for 2021.

The issue was debated at the extraordinary sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs held on June 13.