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According to the state budget 2022 execution, growth was recorded in all sectors, unemployment decreased, new jobs were created: the RA Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan mentioned at the extraordinary sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs on June 12, the agenda of which included the issue of approving the annual report on the RA state budget 2022 execution. The Minister presented the numerical data of the performance of all sectors in detail, the completed works and the budget programmes.

According to that, in 2022, a 12.6% real growth of GDP was recorded, which was mainly conditioned by the growth of services, around 28%. Industry grew by 7.9%, the contribution of construction to economic growth was 1.2 percentage.

In the financial year, the actual volume of export of goods and services increased by 54.4% conditioned by the increase in external demand: the IT sector, services provided to tourists.

In 2022, 12-month inflation significantly accelerated in June, reaching 10.3%. However, according to the Minister of Finance, as a result of the targeted monetary policy conducted by the Central Bank, it decreased to 8.3% in December.

In 2022, the actual revenues of the state budget amounted to 2.063.1 billion AMD, ensuring 100.2% performance of the specified programme.

State budget tax revenues and state duties amounted to around 1.926.0 billion AMD, which provided 104.4 % of the index set by the specified programme. Compared to 2021, the state duties of tax revenues increased by 21.4% or 339.1 AMD, which is mainly due to the increase in VAT, profit tax and income tax.

The expenditures of the state budget for 2022 amounted to 2.242.6 billion AMD, and the annual plan was fulfilled by 98%. 56.8% of the total amount of deviation from the plan was allocated to current expenditures, 43.2% to operations with non-financial assets.

Capital expenditure performance of 95% was noted to be unprecedented.

The deficit/GDP ratio was 2.1% in 2022, compared to the predicted 3% and 4.6% in 2021. In the financial year, the structure of deficit financing sources changed.

About 99.6 billion AMD was allocated to repayment of external credits in the financial year, making up 98.2% of the programme. During the financial period, as of December 31, the external state debt of the RA amounted to 44,186.7 billion AMD or 10,637.7 billion USD. The RA state debt made 49.3% of GDP, decreasing by 14.2 percentage compared to last year. And the Government's debt was 46.7% of the GDP, decreasing by 13.6% compared to 2021.

According to Vahe Hovhannisyan, in 2022, growth was recorded in almost all sectors, unemployment decreased, and new jobs were created.

According to the Minister, in 2022 there was a great demand for state securities. Foreign investors contributed to the development of the Government bond market.

The RA Minister of Finance answered the MPs’ questions, which were related to the financing of science and education, and the resulting indices of other fields.

The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gevorg Papoyan first thanked the opposition colleagues for their purposeful participation in the budget debates and emphasized the importance of substantive debate. Touching upon the state budget 2022 execution, he highlighted the implementation of planned programmes and also underlined the unprecedented performance of the capital expenditures.

Gevorg Papoyan stated that the NA Civil Contract Faction will vote for the report on the RA state budget 2022 execution.

The Committee members endorsed the debated document.

According to the decision of the Committee, on June 23, at 11:00 a.m., a joint sitting of the Standing Committees on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs and on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport will be held at the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport in order to debate the current conclusion of the Audit Chamber regarding the results of the audit of the annual performance of the state budget 2022.