Elmira Ibraimova: Budget of 2016 – country's impoverishment budget

«The budget for 2016 is the country’s impoverishment budget," Elmira Ibraimova, ex-head of the Accounting Chamber of Kyrgyzstan, said today at the round table «Economy: figures and reality.»

According to her, if to study the results of the country’s economic development in 2016, it seems that the figures are good and official statistics indicate an improvement in the situation in the Kyrgyz Republic.

«The question arises: where is the money? Beautiful figures sometimes turn into question marks. Thus, the shortfall in taxes amounted to 6.9 billion soms by the end of 2016, including the Tax Service — 4.1 billion, the Customs Service — 2.1 billion. Such facts indicate a large volume of the shadow economy. The government agrees with the existence of a shadow economy. The informal sector in Kyrgyzstan can reach 50 to 70 percent of GDP. This indicates a serious scale of corrupt financial flows," Elmira Ibraimova said.

"Kyrgyzstan's foreign trade turnover amounted to almost $ 5.5 billion, and decreased by 1.4 percent compared to 2015. At the same time, exports grew by 5.1 percent. These numbers turn into questions again. Taking into account additional estimates of the National Statistical Committee and the National Bank, exports decreased by 1.5 percent, and without gold, the fall could be 7.7 percent. Negative balance of foreign trade turnover is $2.1 billion. The lack of government attention to the problems of the economy forces people to seek work abroad," she added.