Armenia`s external debt exceeds $ 5 billion

ArmInfo. Armenia's external debt by September 2017 exceeded the $ 5 billion (2.402 trillion AMD) line, having increased by 11.6% in the annual section, but only in January- August this year. - by 4.6%. This is evidenced by the data of the RA Ministry of Finance, provided by the ArmInfo National Statistical Service.

The degree of coverage of foreign debt with gold and foreign exchange reserves declined in January-August 2017 from 45.9% to 43.3%, compared to 37.5% a year earlier, and against the background of annual growth of reserves by 27.7% (including 1.3% decline in 8 months of this year).

The total state debt of Armenia in January-August 2017 increased by 6.8%, and in the annual section - by 14.5%, reaching $ 6.3 billion (2.99 trillion), which was due to a more impressive increase in domestic debt than external debt. Thus, domestic debt grew in January-August this year by 9%, and in annual terms - by 31.4%, exceeding $ 1.2 billion (592.5 billion). As a comparison, in January-August 2016, the annual growth of the external debt by 11.7% and domestic by 37.6% increased the total state debt of Armenia by 14.6%.

In the structure of external debt 88.6% or $ 4.45 billion accounted for by the government, and the remaining 11.4% or $ 573.9 million - by the Central Bank. Moreover, the government's external debt increased by 9.9% on an annual basis, against the background of an increase in the external debt of the Central Bank by 15.5%. Only for January-August 2017 the government's external debt grew by 3.4%, with the growth of the external debt of the Central Bank by 13.7%.

In the structure of the domestic state debt, government bonds dominate. In January-August, 2017, the share fell from 91% to 89.1% ($ 1.1 billion or 527.6 billion), with an annual increase in absolute value of 29.3%. Then followed the Armenian Eurobonds - $ 126.6 million or 60.6 billion AMD, the share of which increased over the reporting period from 8.4% to 10.2%, with an annual increase in absolute value of 65.2%. The rest is covered by guarantees - 0.7% ($ 9 million), with an annual increase in the absolute value of 28.6%. Only in January-August 2017, the volume of state bonds in the domestic state debt grew by 5.5%, Armenian Eurobonds by 30.9%, and guarantees by 26.5%.

Following the results of 2016 the share of the national debt in Armenia's GDP was 56.6%, against 48.7% in 2015. And only in terms of external debt, the share of GDP grew from 41.4% in 2015 to 45.8% in 2016. Armenia's GDP growth slowed in 2016 to 0.2% from 3.2% in 2015. By January 1, 2017, the specific debt load per capita reached $ 2 thousand, of which over $ 1.6 thousand came from external debt. In 2016, the degree of coverage of external debt with gold and foreign currency reserves increased from 41.1% to 45.9% against the backdrop of an increase in external debt for this period by 11.6%, with an increase in reserves by 22.2%.