YEREVAN, January 12. / ARKA /. Jean-Michel Happi, head of the World Bank Yerevan Office, said today the Armenian budget deficit will drop from current 8% of the GDP to 3% in late 2012. Gagik Minasian, chairman of a parliament committee on finance, credit and budget issues, said earlier there were grounds for the government to expect the 2010 budget deficit to drop to 5% of the GDP, one percent down from projected 6%.

Speaking at a news conference Mr. Happi said the drop to 3% is to be backed by the government’s fiscal and tax and budget policies and debt consolidation. The latter, he said, will be depending largely on economic recovery pace and tax collection efficiency.

He noted also that the government’s programs will not be aiming at sharp reduction of expenditures s and will be focused instead on raising their efficiency.

According to the Armenian ministry of finance, the country’s budget deficit in the first 11 months of 2010 was 52.4 billion Drams, down from projected full year deficit of 128 billion Drams. It was also substantially down from a 115 billion Dram deficit recorded for the first 11 months of 2009. The government attracted last year almost 68 billion Drams from internal resources and 15.3 billion Drams from external resources to narrow the deficit gap. ($1 – 363.85 Drams). -0-