YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. "The Armenian government should shift to a strict regime of savings, we should save state resources and spend in line with our revenues," the prime minister Tigran Sargsyan stated at the March 12 sitting of the government. In his words, the data of the National Statistical Service show that GDP indices sharply worsened in January which means "we must be prepared for the worst scenario". T. Sargsyan said that no one today can make forecasts about further developments in the global economy as a result of the crisis. So, according to him, it is necessary to adopt the principle of quarterly budget planning and to plan expenditures based on it. The prime minister pointed out that expenditures should be reduced, but in conditions of such savings, social expenditures: benefits, pensions, salaries should be protected. "Strict savings must be ensured with respect to other expenditures," he underlined. He expressed an opinion that numerous difficulties will arise in terms of both domestic and foreign functions. "We must overcome, there is no other way as the global economy is developing by a not good scenario. The forecasts of the Central Bank of Armenia and the IMF are regularly revised and changed in a not positive direction. We should save and spend as much as we are able to collect in taxes," he noted. The minister of finance Tigran Davtian said that taxes-GDP ratio should be increased by 0.4% to 17.4% this year. "There is no other way," the minister said. In his words, expenditures should be redistributed rather than reduced, and several expenditures should be transferred to some other period. The formation of 2010-2012 medium-term expenditure programs has been temporarily suspended. The prime minister instructed all the ministries and departments to submit proposals on efficient budgetary expenditures within 5 days.

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