Parliament approves Armenia’s budget for 2019November 22, 2018 - 14:04 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian parliament on Thursday, November 22 approved thebudget for 2019, with 66 lawmakers voting in favor and 4 against, and 2 abstaining. Accordingly, budget revenues will stand ad AMD 1.462 trillion (approx. $3.017 billion), while expenditures will top AMD 1․614 trillion ($3.331 billion), creating a AMD 151․6 billion (more than $3.51 million) deficit. As reported earlier, the country is planning to increase defense expenditures by 25% year-on-year. Under the new budget, AMD 307 billion (more than $625 million) will be allocated to the Defense Ministry. From this sum, AMD 300.5 billion will be spent on military defense measures. The defense budget of 2018 had grown 17.6% against the previous year. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. Aram I supports Karekin II’s “patriotic position” Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I has expressed support for the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. |