YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Finance Minister of Armenia Vardan Aramyan presented the main principles of the 2017 state budget draft in the Parliament, reports “Armenpress”.

The Minister said the first and important principle of the budget is the drafting of fiscal policy in line with the drafted macro-economic policy.

“We think that the budget is not only the report on government’s financial flows, but it is also an important tool for forming a macro-economic environment. That’s why the fiscal policy must consider also the macro-economic developments that we expect in 2017. We have already stated that we are going to present a conservative budget. Here we have considered the macro-economic developments both in the global and domestic economy as well”, the Minister said adding that compared to 2016, this year growth trends in the domestic economy will be realized. Growth trends will be seen in the global economy as well, thus, the government took into account those trends when forming the state budget draft.

The second important principle is ensuring macro-economic stability. “We must have in our spotlight the short-term and long-term prospects, and that is the economic growth. The economic growth is emerged when there is a macro-economic stability. We think that this second principle is strictly important from this perspective since we have talked about it for several times that in recent years external shocks have entered in Armenia. Of course, it had its impact on our economy. We had to involve foreign debt to counter this. In this circumstance the debt has increased by 14-16% in 2014-2016. For 2017 as an important principle we have targeted to gradually stabilize the rates of debt growth in order to keep the situation under our constant control. That’s why we expect slow pace of debt growth”, the Finance Minister said.

The third major principle says steps must be taken aimed at causing additional pressures on businesses through collecting tax revenues. “Tax collection must be lawful to economic developments. If you put more burden on businesses than their real economic activity allows, it creates for them deviations in terms of managing the financial flows. Additional burden on a business can impact economic growth, therefore, this principle is also important”, the Minister said.

The fourth key principle is the continuous expenditure obligations assumed by the state. The Minister said it is necessary to make sure that the quality of services provided by the state will not be in danger due to tight resources.