DUSHANBE, June 20, Asia-Plus – Government considered an additional budget (bujeti ilovagi) for 2007 at a June 20 meeting presided over by President Emomali Rahmon, presidential press service said.
Telling the meeting, President Rahmon noted that the country”s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1 billion Somonis in the year to June 1, 2007, reaching 3.7 billion somonis and it is expected to have increased to 10.9 billion somonis by the end of the year, which is 1.3 billion more than it was originally planned.
During the meeting, it was noted that inflation for the first five months of 2007 stood at 3.1 percent, which is 2.9 percent fewer than in the same period of last year, and by the end of the year, inflation is expected not to exceed 7 percent, while foreign trade deficit for January-May 2007 was $247 million.
Tajikistan’s external trade turnover for the report period has amounted to nearly $1.5 billion, with exports amounting to $605 million and imports amounting to $862 million.
The additional budget for 2007 stands at 272 million somonis and social spending will account for 65 percent (175 million) of the additional budget allocations, with 16.8 percent (45.7 million somonis) earmarked for public education alone.
The additional budget projects expenditure of 11.4 million somonis in the health sector, which is 4.2 percent of the additional budget.
15 percent of the additional budget, or 40.3 million somonis, is expected to be spent on social protection of the population.
The additional budget earmarks 7.4 percent, or 20 million somonis, for culture and sports, 20.85 percent, or 56.7 million somonis, for housing-communal economy, and 3 percent, or 8 million somonis, for the agrarian sector.
According to Finance Minister Safarali Najmuddinov, the national budget for January-May 2007 was over-fulfilled by 20.1 percent, reaching 1.059 billion somonis, which is 165 million somonis more than it was originally planned and 290 million somonis more than in the same period of last year.
