YEREVAN, OCTOBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN. By the draft 2009 state budget, ecomomic growth will make 9.2% in Armenia next year, the chairman of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee for Financial, Credit and Budgetary Issues, member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) board Gagik Minasian stated at the October 7 press conference. The deficit will make 0.95% in 2009, which is quite a good index, he said, adding the a deficit of over 3% is considered as risky by the EU standards. According to G. Minasian, by the 2009 budget, the overall expenditures will grow by 15%. The expenditures for apartment construction will be unprecedented: they will increase by 20% as compared with 2008 and make 23.7 billion drams (about 79 million USD). Educational expenditures will grow by 22.5%, health care expenditures by 20%. In the words of the committee chairman, the 2009 state budget will show special concern about the sectors which "are based on human resources: medicine, education, and culture". The budget envisages a 22.1% growth of tax revenues, which, according to G. Minasian, is a high index and bears evidence of the efficiency of the authorities' fight against shadow economy. As for inflation, G. Minasian expressed an opinion that it was quite high in 2008, although not as high as compared with the indices in other CIS countries. Nevertheless, as he said, the government realizes the negative impact of inflation on the population, especially on the vulnerable sections, and takes steps so that inflation will not exceed 5% in 2009.

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