Finance

Finance

Ogtay Hagverdiyev: Azerbaijan’s state budget performance will be 85% complete this year

25 November 2009 16:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov - APA-ECONOMICS. The execution of Azerbaijan’s state budget for 2009 is projected to be at 85%, said well-known economist Ogtay Hagverdiyev.

According to him, the government has deferred some projects this is due to the global crisis.

Commenting on some indicators of the state budget for 2010, he noted that the budget does not reflect the economic situation of the country.

But along with that the government learned a lesson from 2009 and has built the 2010 draft budget on the oil forecast price of $45/barrel, he added.

3 main areas - defense and security, social security and investment dominates the budget spending.

Gubad Ibadoglu, Chairman of the Center for Economic Research, added that the budget clearly shows the impacts of falling oil prices and the global financial crisis.

The budget income section envisions AZN 330 million as proceeds from AIOC, down AZN 900 million from the expected.

"Dividends as non-tax revenues decreased by 98.8% - only AZN 80 000. This is due to the fact that the primary payer of dividends â€“ International Bank of Azerbaijan either suffered from the financial crisis, or, the government stake in this bank will be privatized in the future. The second option is more likely,â€ he added.

Economists also added that covering 2010 budget deficit at the expense of off-budget revenues of budget organizations would reduce the bonuses granted in addition to the salary in universities and similar structures

.