Armenia has not received enough capital investments since 2014, in order to solve the problem and contribute to economic development. Atom Janjughazyan, the newly appointed Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia, stated this during the executive debates of the budget in 2017.
Due to this situation, according to the Minister, we had some distortion: “We received a lot more debt than the investments. We borrowed money for current expenses, which in the short run is logical. If we reduced the current expenses, we would have more problems, and in the medium- or long-term, this approach cannot be viewed as legitimate”.
Therefore, according to the Minister, this policy is included in the program of 2018-2020, in order to have a balanced financing in 2019: “We will have a significant change in 2020: capital expenditures made at the expense of our current resources will exceed the cost of our debt”.
In 2017, the Armenian government has received 280 billion drams of foreign loans and has repaid 48 billion drams: “The amount of state debt was only 6 billion 775 million US dollars, where 6 billion 173 million US dollars was the government’s share. The level of total debt amounted to 58.8 percent. It has a certain growth in dynamics, which has also conditioned the fiscal policy that has been chosen: to stabilize the debt”.
The Minister assures that Armenia is considered a country with a low debt burden according to various indices.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
