YEREVAN, October 30. /ARKA/. Armenia’s 2013 draft government budget contains, for the first time, a section with specific calculations of possible impacts of risks on budget performance, Finance Minister Vache Gabrielyan said today in the parliament during the discussion of the 2013 draft budget.

He said the document indicates sources and measures to be taken to neutralize possible risks.
One of the sources if GDP growth slows down as a consequence of currency exchange rate fluctuations is attracting additional funding. These risks are estimated to cause losses from 21 to 51 billion drams.

“In case of downward trends in economy the government’s priority should become avoiding social spending cuts,” Gabrielyan said.

“To ensure the projected spending under this scenario, the government will have to attract additional funding in the amount of 0.55% of the projected GDP,” he added.

Earlier, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that given negative impacts of global economic developments on Armenia’s 2013 budget the government may count on $100 million financial assistance from the World Bank.

Next year’s draft budget calls for 1.031 trillion drams in revenue and 1.151 trillion drams in spending. The projected deficit is 124 billion drams or 2.6% of GDP.

The projected 12-month inflation is 4±1.5% and GDP is 6.2%. ($1 – AMD 405.73). -0---