Belarus budget is to be reduced by 7-8% in 2016

Belarus will reduce budget expenditures by 7-8% in 2016, Belarus Finance Minister Vladimir Amarin told journalists.

“We are planning to cut the budget expenditures by 7-8%. It is not little. Simply put, it is almost a monthly volume of expenditures,” Vladimir Amarin noted. According to him, the decree to review the budget parameters will be drafted in June.

Vladimir Amarin also said that social expenditure will not be affected. “First thing we will cut down the low priority spending, clarify the relations with local budgets, and reduce subsidies to them,” he noted. Budget expenditures will be reduced proceeding from the average annual oil price at $35-40 per barrel.

Speaking about the budget for 2017, Vladimir Amarin said it will run a surplus. The working group has already started working on its preparation. Export duties on oil products will be spent to repay the external debt, the same as this year, BelTA writes.