The Syrian parliament has approved the 2002 budget, which projects expenditure of 356.4 billion pounds ($7.12 billion), an increase of 10 percent, official newspapers reported Friday, November 30.
The budget allocates 131.9 billion pounds ($2.63 billion) to the public sector, 184 billion pounds ($3.68 billion) for investments and 40.5 billion pounds ($810 million) for debt service, said Ath-Thawra.The figures for revenues and overall expenditure were not provided in the official press, following parliament's approval of the budget on Thursday in a session attended by Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Miro.
Next year's budget, which has to be approved also by President Bashar Al-Assad, provides for the creation of almost 27,000 new jobs in the admininistrative sector and 42,000 in the economic sector, Ath-Thawra added.
The Syrian government has said the increased spending aims to hike investments in the public sector and boost its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), to stimulate the economy and create employment. Syria's 2001 budget set spending at 322 billion pounds ($6.4 billion) and revenues at 229.3 billion pounds ($4.6 billion).
The public sector's contribution to Syria's $17 billion GDP fluctuates between 35 and 50 percent. It varies with the prices of crude oil, the state's main source of revenue. — (AFP, Damascus)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
