A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government approved the annual report on the state budget performance of the Republic of Armenia for 2021, which will be submitted to the National Assembly in accordance with the procedure. According to the report, as a result of the changes in the revenues and expenditures envisaged in the Law on the State Budget 2021 carried out within the powers vested in the Government by the Law, the program indicators were fulfilled by 99.6% on revenues, amounting to 1,683.8 billion AMD, and on expenditures, by 97.8%, amounting to 2,004.3 billion AMD.

As mentioned by Deputy Minister of Finance Armen Hayrapetyan, 2021 started with a tense financial and economic environment, conditioned by the socio-economic uncertainties caused by the Artsakh war and the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of the combination of fiscal, monetary and economic policies, GDP growth in 2021 amounted to 5.7% against the projected 3.2%. The Deputy Minister noted that in 2021 the level of tax revenue collection has improved, which increased by 14.5% compared to the previous year. As a result, the tax / GDP ratio improved by 0.3 percent, reaching an all-time high of 22.7 percent. Responding, Nikol Pashinyan singled out two important indicators. First, in the crisis year, the budget revenues exceeded the preliminary plan by 147 billion AMD; second, the capital expenditures of the preliminary plan were 100% implemented.

The Government made a decision to allocate money for holding schoolchildren team road race of the "Prime Minister's Cup of the Republic of Armenia". The event is planned to be held on May 14 in Tavush region, on the road to Dilijan’s "Parz Lake". The best teams of all schools of the republic can take part in the tournament.

Referring to the decision, Nikol Pashinyan noted that a number of competitions called "Prime Minister's Cup" are successfully held in Armenia. “Their initial purpose is to involve as many people as possible, to try to make sports, the healthy lifestyle more popular through them. But the analysis showed that they are still individual competitions, and we need to develop our general perceptivity of team competitions in the country," the Prime Minister said.

Accordingly, it was decided to hold a team tournament under the name of "Prime Minister's Cup" for which there is no need for expensive infrastructure for training and preparation.

In this context, the Prime Minister also attached importance to the issue of providing proper awareness of the tournament.