Head of State Approved Law on State Budget in 2017

President Ilham Aliyev approved the law on the state budget for 2017, adopted by the Parliament on 16 December.

The state budget expenditures will fall by more than 10% compared to the 2016 forecasts. The budget deficit will amount to 645 million. manat (370 million dollars).

The budget revenues are projected at 15 billion 955 million manat (9.05 billion dollars at the current rate). The reduction is by 867 million manat (492 million dollars), or 5.2% compared to 2016.

The budget expenditures are projected at 16 billion 600 million manat ($ 9 billion 420 million), accounting for 27% of GDP.

The decrease compared with the year 2016 will amount to AZN 1 billion 895 million ($ 1 billion 75 million), or 10.2% compared to 2016.

The state budget projections are based on the rate of $ 40 per barrel of oil. Transfers from the State Oil Fund are projected at 6 billion 100 million manat (3 billion 461 million dollars), which is 1 billion 515 million manat (860 million dollars), or 19.9% less than in 2016.

 In general, the share of oil revenues is 49.2% (7 billion 855 million manat (4 billion 457 million dollars). This is 14.9% lower than in 2016.

The defense spending is forecast at the level of AZN 2.8 billion ($ 1.6 billion), accounting for 16.7% of all the budget expenditures. Compared to the year 2016, it is 2.9% more.

The GDP growth is projected at 1% and will amount to 61.4 billion manat (34.9 billion dollars).

Inflation for 2017 is projected at 7.3%.  -06D-