Finance minister: Armenia to be more cautious in attracting new funds in 2010

YEREVAN, September 30. /ARKA/. Armenia will be more cautious in attracting new credits in 2010, Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“Attracted funds have their price and need service expenses. That is why we will be more cautious and conservative in attracting funds in 2010 to recover economy, reduce the budget deficit and get back our pre-crisis indicators”, he said.

The minister said that the budget deficit will be driven 1% down to 5.6% or 5.7% of GDP the next year.

The government will do whatever necessary to return to international standards and lower deficit to 3% of GDP, the pre-crisis level.

“There will be no need to attract great funds the next year. The money received from World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and Russia is intended for 2009 and 2010”, Davtyan said.

He said that the World Bank lent $60 million to Armenia and Asian Development Bank $80 million.

The International Monetary Fund will transfer $305 million to Armenia in 2009 and 2010.
The minister said that Russia sent $500 million to the country as bailout credit for supporting economy, not for covering budget expenses.

In his words, AMD 95 billion of the Russian credit has already been sent to various sectors of the national economy for supporting small- and mid-scale businesses, another 24 billion was earmarked for recovery of quake-stricken areas this year and 22 to 24 billion will be transferred for these purposes in 2010.

“This is a half of the Russian credit – AMD 140 or 145 billion has already been utilized. The remaining amount will be kept in the Central Bank as bailout fund”, Davtyan said.-0---