At the government’s September 30 session, the 2022 state budget draft was approved, according to which next year the state’s expenditures will amount to an unprecedented 2 trillion 188 billion drams (at today’s exchange rate, more than 4 billion 483 million US dollars), which is 338 billion drams more than the 2021 state budget.
Nevertheless, next year the government plans to receive 1 trillion 946 billion drams in revenue. The difference—242 billion drams or nearly half a billion dollars—the office headed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan intends to borrow, but unlike previous years, according to the draft law on the 2022 state budget, the executive intends to borrow only from domestic, Armenian sources.
“The 2022 budget is based on 3 main priorities. The first is reform of the security system, the second is development of infrastructure, the third is modernization of education and science. We will pay great attention to ensuring security, without which it will not be possible to realize long-term development goals,” the Prime Minister noted at the government session.
The 2022 state budget provides for allocating 345.4 billion drams to the Ministry of Defense, or more than 707 million dollars at today’s exchange rate, which is 10.8 percent more than the military department’s expenditures this year. The police’s expenditures next year will amount to 66.5 billion drams, or 2.9 percent more than this year’s expenditures. Compared to 2021, the funds allocated to the National Security Service will increase substantially—by 22.7 percent—and will amount to 42.6 billion drams.
In the military-industrial sector, 5.2 billion drams will be allocated next year for geotechnical research, which is 15.5 percent more than this year’s allocation. Overall, science funding will increase by almost 83 percent compared to 2021, amounting to 25.1 billion drams, the Minister of Finance announced at the government session.
