Araik Harutyunyan: The draft budget of 2019 lays the foundation for  reducing the level of poverty in Artsakh

ArmInfo. The largest faction of the National Assembly of Artsakh will unanimously vote for the draft budget of 2019. This decision was made  at today's meeting of the party.As the head of the party, ex-premier  of Artsakh Araik Harutyunyan, wrote on his Facebook page, the  expenditure part of the project is about $ 230 million, which is able  to ensure the implementation of all the social projects planned by  the current authorities for 2017-2020.

At the same time, the ex-prime minister claims that the fixed rates  of economic development will allow to increase the expenditure side  of the budget annually, and by the year 2021 they will reach $ 300  million. to direct substantial funds to the sphere of small and  medium business and to increase the volume of capital construction.  "Despite the fact that the current draft budget does not provide for  an increase in salaries and pensions, since it is not planned in  Armenia, however, there are good bases for raising them in the  future," concluded Harutyunyan. According to the results of 2019, the  surplus of the Artsakh Republic's budget is expected to be 1.3  billion drams. This indicator is unprecedented for the country. Thus,  according to the minister, the revenues of the Artsakh State Treasury  in 2019 will grow by about 16 billion drams - from the figure of 96  billion 428 million drams to 112 300 million drams in the approved  budget for 2018.  Expenditures are expected to be about 111 billion  drams instead of the current 101 billion 538 million drams. The  growth of the budget expenditures, according to the head of the  Ministry of Finance, is mainly due to an increase in capital  expenditures by 1.6 billion drams, and health and social welfare will  increase by 770 million and 480 mlm drams, respectively. In turn,  capital expenditures will be used to implement programs for the  construction of a number of social facilities, and health workers  will have a 15% salary increase. The social security sector will  spend additional budget allocations for the introduction of a funded  pension system. 

Note that in the framework of the planned in 2019-2021. macroeconomic  indicators of the Republic of Artsakh, GDP in 2019 will be 333.2  billion drams, in 2020 - 367 billion drams, and in 2021 - 404.2  billion drams. Own budget expenditures in 2019-2021. projected at 56,  68 and 70 billion drams, respectively.  Expenditures of the budget in  2019 will be 110.7 billion drams, in 2021 - 111 billion drams, in  2021 - 112.6 billion drams. Earlier it was reported that the  financial authorities of Artsakh plan to complete the year 2018 with  an absolute GDP index of over 300 billion drams, instead of the  previously planned 291 billion.  The deficit of the state budget of  Artsakh in 2018 is projected at 5 billion 110 million drams.