BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.10
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
Azerbaijan has significantly increased defense and security spending from January through June 2021, Trend reports referring to the Finance Ministry.
According to the ministry, in the reporting period over 2.5 billion manat ($1.4 billion) was spent on the country’s defense and national security, up by over 1.7 billion manat ($1 billion, or 73.9 percent) on annual basis.
Spending on the above fields amounted to 55.2 percent of the annual forecast, exceeding the forecast of over 2.47 billion manat ($1.45 billion) by 56.1 million manat ($33 million, or 2.3 percent).
In the first half of this year, the state budget expenditures on the judicial system, law enforcement agencies and prosecutors increased by 65.4 million manat ($38.4 million, or 8.2 percent) compared to the same period in 2020, and amounted to 861.7 million manat ($506.8 million).
Expenditures on these fields were executed with a deficit of 96.2 percent, or 34.3 million manat ($20.18 million), under a forecast of 896.1 million manat ($527.1 million), and amounted to 41.2 percent of the annual forecast.
(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on Aug.10)
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