Capital Expenditure Performance of the Budget Only 47 Percent Since Beginning of the Year, Says Tadevos Avetisyan

As of September 15, the capital expenditure performance of the budget since the beginning of the year has been only 47 percent, meaning that 53 percent has been underperformed. This was mentioned today, October 31, during the discussion of the draft budget for 2024 by Tadevos Avetisyan, a member of the 'Hayastan' faction.

'In particular, the budget allocated 411 billion drams for expenses during that period, of which only 154 billion drams were actually spent. Meanwhile, the performance of capital expenditures in the economic relations sector was 36 percent, meaning that 64 percent of what was planned was not fulfilled. What accounts for this significantly low performance? The second question is whether the targets set for ensuring economic growth and revenue collection have been calculated and assessed properly, and what is the risk that the targeted macro indicators for 2024 may not be achieved,' he stated.

In response, Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan noted that this year's performance of capital expenditures has not deviated significantly from that of the previous year. 'This is classified as a certain systemic issue, where we have a lower performance in the first three months than planned, and then a significant increase in expenditures in the fourth quarter. Regarding economic growth and the associated risks, yes, there are risks that are due to various internal and external factors. We have assessments regarding the likelihood and scale of these risks manifesting. Therefore, we have planned to have a buffer reserve. This means we have planned revenues but have not distributed them, considering that if there happen to be issues with tax collection, those reserve funds will simply be reduced, and there will not be a situation where we promised to provide funds for any direction and then find we do not have the money,' the minister added. 'Among these risks could be currency depreciation, insufficient levels of economic growth, and various external shocks that could affect our exports and the prices of main resources. We will have a reserve fund of over 100 billion drams,' the minister said.