Defence, security expenses to amount $2.6bn in 2022
By Ayya Lmahamad
Azerbaijan's Finance Ministry forecasts the country's defence and security expenses to amount to AZN 4.4 billion ($2.64bn) in 2022.
The defence and security expenses for the next four years are projected to be AZN 4.4 billion ($2.64bn) for 2022, AZN 4.5 billion ($2.69bn) for 2023, AZN 4.6 billion ($2.74bn) for 2024 and AZN 4.7 billion ($2.79bn) for 2025.
This field occupies the 15.5 percent share in the structure of the functional classification of the state budget expenditures for 2022. The largest share in the classification is occupied by economic activity (18.64 percent), followed by defense and national security, general government services (14.7 percent), education (12.9 percent) and social protection and welfare (12.4 percent).
It should be noted that overall state budget expenditures for the next year are projected to be AZN 28.9 billion ($17 billion).
Earlier, the ministry reported that the volume of Azerbaijan’s defence and national security expenditures increased by 73.9 percent year-on-year to AZN 2.5 billion ($1.5bn) in January-June 2021.
Azerbaijan increased its defence and security expenditures by 31.6 pct in 2020. Some 4.4 billion AZN ($2.6bn) were allocated for the defence and national security under the draft law on the implementation of Azerbaijan’s 2020 budget.
Moreover, according to the ministry's report, Azerbaijan's expenses in the health field are projected at AZN 1.4 billion ($849M), education at AZN 3.7 billion ($2.2bn) and social protection and welfare at AZN 3.5 billion ($2.1bn).
Meanwhile, economic growth of 4.6 percent is forecasted in Azerbaijan by late 2021. At the same time, the country's GDP is projected to increase by 4 percent in 2022.
It should be noted that Azerbaijan ranked 64th among 138 countries in 2020, according to PowerIndex of Global Fire Power for the potential military strength report, which takes into account over 50 individual factors.
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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad
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