Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad presented a new budget to the Majlis on Wednesday. The $416 billion budget will increase military spending by 127 percent.
According to the Mehr News Agency, the total budget has grown by 21,000 billion rials, but due to currency devaluation, the budget has actually shrunk by 5.6 percent. Although the full details of the budget have not been released, certain details have been gleaned from statements made by Ahmendinejad as he presented the budget. For example, the military budget will be increased 127 percent over the previous year. No official statistics on Iran's military expenditures exist, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database estimates 2011 expenditures at over $7 billion.
The additional spending would bring the military budget up to $15.89 billion. The proposed budget also increases spending on development projects by 20 percent. A little under four-fifths of the budget will go towards state-owned companies. The deputy director of Iran's Trade Promotion Organization has stated that $300 million in incentives for exemplary exporters have been included in the trade budget, and that non-oil exports are expected to grow 28 percent in the upcoming fiscal year. The Iranian fiscal year begins on March 20. (Source: english.nuqudy.com)
