The Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia has foreseen to receive
8,163,913,000,600 billion dram from the budget. By taking into
consideration the exchange rate for one dollar in 2005 (535 dram), the
Central Bank’s amount will be 15,259,651 million dollars and 58 cents.
These numbers mean nothing at first sight. It is obvious that the
government of the Republic of Armenia must keep the Central Bank
stable, meaning it has to provide the necessary financial means. As for
how much is a normal amount for the Central Bank-that is another side
of the story.
The budget for the administrative expenses and the capital investment
program for the Central Bank in 2005 is as follows: “preservation of
equipment consists of 2,675,900,800 dram of which the salary and other
expenses consist of 2,13,851,000. We must also take into consideration
the fact that the average salaries are foreseen to be raised to 302,000
dram. In comparison, let’s mention that the average salary in 2004 was
242,000 dram, meaning in 2005 it is foreseen to raise the salary by 24%
when the government plans on raising it to 5%. The Central Bank has
appealed to the government for providing a commission of 281,435,800
dram to the staff. The expenses for the commission of Armenia’s
legislative, executive and judicial branches consist of 955,004,700
million dram, meaning that the Central Bank foresees spending nearly
29% of the state government. We can only envy the traveling done to
different countries, from Scandinavia to Malta, CIS countries to
Syngapore. There is even some kind of formula: “participation in
founding banks”, meaning there may be other flights made to other
continents, for example, Africa, Australia, etc.
The project for procuring capital investments and other financial means
in the year 2005 will consist of 5,315,847,000 billion dram of which
3,020,000,000 dram belongs to the HypoTech company. The company must
sell the equipment of the HypoTech market. According to the resolution
passed by the government of the Republic of Armenia on June 3, 2004,
the development of the HypoTech loaning system is not foreseen in the
budget (including the Central Bank). The Central Bank’s approach has
its negative sides and they have been presented to the government and
another road towards loaning has been chosen, so the founding of the
HypoTech company is actually considered unimportant.
In order to purchase new technical devices in 2005, the Central Bank
needs 259,292,600 dram. It needs 216,039,200 dram for security and
another 100,000,000 million dram for procuring other resources.
By reading this document, the government of the Republic of Armenia is
not too pleased with the expenses, on the contrary, the government
suggests that the Central Bank calculate how much it needs to spend.
This means discussing the limited amount of expenses to be made in
2005, how much is needed to reduce and at the same time, not stop the
bank from doing its job-especially when the bank expects to receive 4.9
million dram during the year of 2005.