Thursday, 7 June 2012
PM Asks Finance Minister To Comment On 5-Month Economic Performance
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan – Dear colleagues, I want to start today’s session by giving the floor to the acting Minister of Finance who will comment on 5-month economic performance.
Acting Minister of Finance Vache Gabrielyan - Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. I shall brief you on the economic indicators. We have had a 12-month-low 0.5% inflation rate for the past 5 months. If we look at the last 4 months’ aggregated performance as posted by the end of May, we can see that we have boasted a very high index of economic activity - 7.2% - and what matters most is the important share of industry, which was 115.3.% in the last 4-month period.
The stated growth in electricity output is another evidence of increased industrial activity. Exports rose by 118.7%t as compared to January-April, 2011, while imports stood at 18.7%.
If we take the State budget performance, we will see that in the first 5 months revenue amounted to AMD 322.758bn, including AMD 272bn in taxes and duties. As we have the forecast of 6 months ahead, the State Revenue Committee has collected more than half a billion drams during the past 5 months.
If we look at the expenditure side, we can see them standing at AMD 341bn. We had a deficit of AMD 9.5bn while we had projected a greater one. This was due to a 3 billion rise in interest revenue. In addition, we had some under-fulfillment in expenditures due to seasonal factors.
Each year, we spend 8-10% less than projected on a 6-month scale which is the case this year. This means the expenditures side has been doing well this year. We have collected half a billion dram more revenue than planned leading to lower deficit, which is in the corridor of 9.5 billion.
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan - Thank you, Mr. Gabrielyan
