Niger passes slightly increased $3.22 bln 2015 budget

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Parliament in Niger, one of Africa's newest oil producers, adopted on Friday a budget of 1.7 trillion CFA francs ($3.22 billion) for 2015, an increase of nearly 2 percent from this year, according to the text of the budget bill. Investment spending will also increase by over 3 percent to 1.02 trillion CFA francs, making up nearly 60 percent of the total budget. Priority spending areas include security, food security, energy, education and health, Finance Minister Gilles Baillet said in his budget expose. Niger's economy is on track to expand by 6.5 percent this year with increased oil and uranium production likely to sustain high levels of growth, the International Monetary Fund said this month. (1 US dollar = 527.4200 CFA franc)

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