Minister Samir Sharifov: The budget can be revised

Baku. 1 December. REPORT.AZ/ Five committees of Milli Majlis (Azerbaijani Parliament), i.e. the committees on health, family, women and children, science and education, culture, labor and social policy have already started to discuss projects envisaged in 2017 state budget.

Report informs, Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov said, despite devaluation of national currency, Azerbaijani manat is still being exposed to pressure.

He noted that they intend to raise efficiency through optimizing expenditures and to establish financial guaranty for timely fulfillment of foreign obligations.

“Decline of price for crude oil is a risk factor. With oil prices lower than $40/barrel envisioned in the budget, insufficient level of non-oil sector, slow pace of economic growth (1% growth of GDP, 2.5% of non-oil sector) and other negative foreign tendencies, the difficulties in execution of state budget can be expected. If steps towards cutting expenditures to close deficit won’t be sufficient, the budget can be revised”, S.Sharifov told.