Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
Azerbaijan does not see any reason to adjust the forecasts of the state budget for 2015 for now, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said April 20 at a briefing.
"There are certain criteria in the law, after which the adjustment should be carried out, but we do not see them for now," said the minister. "Oil price was set at $90 per barrel while forecasting the state budget for 2015, but already after the fall in oil prices, it became clear that this figure is somewhat overpriced. Surely it will affect the revenue side of the budget. But the direct damage to the state budget is not so great. But of course the drop in oil prices has a negative impact on the balance of payments of the country."
He went on to add that the government of the country is taking some steps in this direction. "We plan to make better use of the budget," Sharifov said. "At the same time, we are planning to slow down the implementation of investment projects, that is, to postpone some projects until next year."
The minister said that most likely, there will be no need to revise the budget forecasts by late 2015.
"This does not mean that there will be no changes in the budget execution," he said. "That is, both revenues and expenses will be reduced. Maybe, our revenues will not be executed at the level we have expected. The same is expected with the expenditure. However, this does not mean that we will adjust the budget."
He also said that according to the primary scenario, the price per barrel of oil in the state budget for 2016 will be set at $ 50.
The minister said that the certain preparatory work for working out the state budget-2016 is already underway.
The official exchange rate is 1.0502 AZN/USD April 20.
Edited by CN
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