Armenia parliament approves budget law for 2018December 8, 2017 - 11:09 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian National Assembly on Friday, December 8 approved the draft annual budget law for 2018 with a vote of 64-35. Lawmakers from the ruling Republican Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun voted in favor. The budget expenditures will grow from AMD 1.36 trillion in 2017 to AMD 1.464 trillion next year, revenues will reach AMD 1.307 trillion from AMD 1.21 trillion last year, with the budget deficit set to stand at AMD 156 billion. The country's defense expenditures will grow by 17,6% to about $518 million in 2018. 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 | Armenia to participate in key EU meeting for the first time ever National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has said that Armenia will for the first time participate in the Conference. U.S. reacts to Russia’s criticism of upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting Matthew Miller has weighed in on Russia’s criticism of an upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting. Lavrov sees ‘collapse’ of Russia’s ties with Armenia Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has underscored heightened tensions between Russia and Armenia. Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine |