PARLIAMENT BUILDS UP FIGURES OF REVENUES, EXPENDITURES AND DEFICIT IN 2018 BUDGET

At its plenary meeting on Thursday, the Moldovan parliamentary majority adopted amendments to the Law on the 2018 State Budget. In particular, the revenue side has been increased by 303.5 million lei - to thus bring the figure up to 36.9 billion lei; the expenditure side - by 652.1 million lei up to 41.9 billion lei; and the deficit has thus grown by 348.6 million lei - up to 5 billion lei.

The Budget revenues have been increased due to a faster growth of the economy as a whole, in particular of the industrial and agricultural output, as well as of growing external trade and the average pay size in the country. Proceeds from taxes and duties and of other revenues have gone up. At the same time, in the revenue side, the share of external grants has been diminished, and one of them is the 3rd tranche from the European Union's macro-financial assistance.

The main changes in the expenditure side include the greater financing of the road repair program (+800 million lei), purchasing of ambulances (+105 million lei), provision of food in educational institutions (+2 lei per a pupil), and the development of the United Emergency Help Service "112" (+ 63.6 million lei). The Budget deficit will mark 5,062 million lei. However, the State Debt should reach 56,976 million lei by the end of the year, which figure is 4,753 million lei smaller than was initially projected. And the share of the State Debt in the GDP will diminish by 3% -- down to 35%.