Armenian Finance Ministry considers the talk about future default to be wrongful 

ArmInfo. The Armenian Finance Ministry considers the talk about a future default to be wrongful, Minister Vardan Aramyan said following the Government's sitting on October 20, when commenting on the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan's statement that the republic faces the prospect of a real economic collapse.    

The finance minister forecasts no default, but he states certain concerns over the negative phenomena in the global economy, which have been penetrating into Armenia as negative foreign shocks since 2014.  However, he noted that Armenia should look ahead and "should conduct a stable fiscal policy". "This means that the debt growth rates should gradually decline," Aramyan said. In addition, he does not think it correct now to speak of a default or to say that Armenia's economy is endangered.   

To note, earlier first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that Armenia may face economic collapse in the nearest future. "While the ruling regime is busy with theater ceremonies of reforming electoral and government systems, which are obviously aimed at strengthening and retaining the running power rather than at recovering the state, the country may face economic collapse called default", Ter- Petrosyan noted.

Central Bank of Armenia has reacted to this statement. "Default in this case means non-fulfillment or late performance of debt obligations by the state.  Armenia has been fulfilling and continues to meet its obligations without any problems and there are no upcoming risks, which will make the country incapable to service all or part of its obligations", the statement disseminated by the CBA particularly reads. Moreover, the CBA statement reads that there are a number of indicators, which testify to Armenia's sufficiency financial solvency in the future, such as stability of debt and foreign currency markets, improvement of balance of payments, sufficient level of international reserves, as well as growth of amount of state bonds turnover on the internal and external markets and significant reduction of interest rates.

According to the data of Armenian Finance Ministry by the end of 2016, the foreign debt of Armenia will grow from 43.7% to 54.4% of GDP, Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan told journalists on October 4.  In his words, the foreign debt increased by $900million in 2014-2016. By the end of the year, the government's debt will reach $4.4billion drams, Central Bank's debt will grow to $532million. As a result, the summary foreign state debt will make up about $5billion. The internal debt, the minister said, will reach $934million.  "The total state debt will reach $5.9billion by the end of the year," Aramyan said. The foreign debt to GDP ratio will make up about 49%, the total debt to GDP ratio - 54.4%.