YEREVAN, October 28. /ARKA/. The draft 2020 budget of the Armenian government projects a deficit to the tune of 183 billion drams or 2.6% of the GDP, Minister of Finance Atom Janjugazyan said today during a discussion of the draft budget by parliamentary standing committees.

He said the draft budget calls for 1.698 trillion drams in revenues, including 1.602 trillion drams that are to be collected as various taxes, 62 billion drams are to come as other receipts, and 34 billion drams will be received as grants.

He said the spending is set at 1.880 trillion drams, of which 1.523 trillion. drams are the so-called current expenditures and 357 billion drams are capital expenditures.

"As a result, the state budget deficit in 2020 will amount to 183 billion drams. In 2020, for the first time, we will not finance the budget deficit with budget assistance loans. The reason is that there is potential to attract domestic loans," said the minister.

In his words, if the government decides next year to attract foreign loans, they will exclusively ordinary loans.

He also said that the government plans to attract 204 billion drams as loans and 34 billion drams as grants.

"Loans will be attracted to finance various programs, including some sub-loan programs, which are expected to help cover the budget deficit through the implementation of targeted programs," Janjugazyan said.

He said of the projected grant funds some 7.6 billion drams will be channeled into targeted programs as budget assistance, and 26 billion drams will be spent on financing other programs. ($ 1 - 475.87 dram). --0--