Details of the state general budget for 2011 were announced alongside the eighth five-year development plan by Mr Macki, at a press conference on January 1st. Total public revenue for 2011 is estimated at OR7.3bn (US$19bn), 14% higher than the 2010 budget figure. Just under 70% of the total is expected to come from oil revenue, based on an assumed average price of US$58/b, the highest price ever assumed in the state budget. Gas revenue is expected to contribute a further 13%, and the remaining amount (nearly 20%) will come from current and capital revenue. Public expenditure for 2011 is estimated at OR8.1bn, 13% higher than the figure in the 2010 budget. Current expenditure, at nearly OR2.8bn, is expected to account for 34% of total expenditure. This represents a 10% increase in current expenditure compared with the 2010 budget. This includes allocations to cover increases in civil service pay resulting from the new civil service job classification system. Education accounts for 34% of current expenditure, and health 12%.

The deficit is expected to be about OR850m which, as Mr Macki pointed out, is 4% of estimated GDP for 2011 and therefore within "economically safe and acceptable limits". Although the authorities have budgeted modest deficits for many years, high oil prices since the mid-2000s, together with a conservative setting of the assumed oil price, has resulted in surpluses being posted annually between 2002 and 2008.

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