MP: More than third of 2018 state budget expenditures accounts for social sphere

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 8

By Azad Hasanli – Trend:

Social expenditures, forecasted in the Azerbaijani state budget for 2018, exceed the same figure for the previous years, said Azerbaijani MP and head of the parliamentary committee on labor and social policy Hadi Rajabli.

He made the remarks at the second day of discussions on draft state and consolidated budgets for 2018 at the Azerbaijani parliament Nov. 8.

Despite certain difficulties, Azerbaijan did not reduce social expenditures in the early years of the post-oil period, Rajabli said.

Social expenditures accounted for 33.5 percent of all expenditures in the state budget for 2018, he added.

In 2018, the government plans to allocate 7,004.8 million manats for social expenditures (33.5 percent of total expenditures) that is 147.9 million manats or 2.2 percent more than the forecasted expenditures for 2017.

Revenues of the Azerbaijani state budget are forecast to total 20.127 billion manats (including centralized revenues – 19.476 billion manats, local revenues – 650.671 million manats).

Expenditures of the Azerbaijani state budget are forecast to total 20.905 billion manats (including centralized expenditures – 20.182 billion manats, local expenditures – 724.092 million manats).

(1.7003 manats = 1 USD on Nov. 8)