ArmInfo. The state debt of Armenia in the third quarter of 2018 remained at the level of $ 6.7 billion (3.3 trillion drams), due to the invariance of external and internal debt - $ 5.4 billion and $ 1.3 billion, respectively. According to preliminary data of the RA Ministry of Finance published by the Statistical Committee, in annual terms (September 2018 by September 2017), the national debt of Armenia grew by 6.9% due to the growth of external debt by 6.8% and internal debt by 7.3%.
The annual growth of government debt and a decrease in population (mainly due to migration) deepened the specific debt burden per capita to $ 2.3 thousand by October 1, 2018, of which $ 1.8 thousand comes from external debt, against respectively $ 2.1 thousand and $ 1.7 thousand by October 1, 2017. According to statistics, as of October 1, 2018, the population of the Republic of Armenia was 2.969 million, against 2.980 million a year earlier and 3.017 million five years earlier. Over the 9 months of 2018, the degree of foreign debt coverage remained almost unchanged - 39.7% (vs. 39.6% at the beginning of the year) amid a decline in external debt by only 1.5%, while reserves declined by 7.1%. A year earlier, by October 1, 2017, the degree of foreign debt coverage with gold and foreign exchange reserves was 41.3%.
As a comparison, we note that in September 2017, by September 2016, the growth of foreign debt by 10.9% and domestic by 20% increased the total national debt of Armenia by 12.5%. Only in the first 9 months of 2017, foreign debt increased by 6.3%, domestic debt - by 9.1%, which increased the total national debt by 6.8%.
Note that for updated this October. World Bank forecasts, Armenia's GDP growth for 2018 has been improved to 5.3% from the previous 4.1%, and for 2019, the previously expected 4% has been revised by 4.3%. According to the share of the state debt of Armenia in GDP, the World Bank predicts 56.6% for 2018, with a decline to 55.4% in 2019, against the previously expected 58.6% and 58.3% respectively. Recall that in 2017 the national debt of Armenia increased by 15.3% to $ 6.8 billion (3.3 trillion drams) due to the growth of external debt by 14.6% - up to $ 5.5 billion (2.7 trillion drams) and the growth of domestic debt by 18.2% - to $ 1.3 billion (619.5 billion drams). This deepened the specific debt in per capita burden of up to $ 2.3 thousand by January 1, 2018, of which over $ 1.8 thousand came from external debt, against $ 2 thousand respectively, and over $ 1.6 thousand by January 1, 2017. According to statistics, as of January 1, 2018, the population of the Republic of Armenia was 2.973 million, against 2.986 million a year earlier and 3.274 million five years earlier. For 2017, the degree of foreign debt coverage by gold and foreign exchange reserves decreased from 45.9% to 39.6% against the background of a significant increase in external debt with a meager decline in reserves. The share of public debt in Armenia's GDP reached 58.8% by the end of 2017, up from 56.6% in 2016.