Tuesday, October 22 2019 14:56

ArmInfo. In 2018, Armenia paid a $ 2 million fee for liabilities of unused loans in the amount of $ 1.5 billion, the head of the department for accounting and servicing  of the Public Debt Management Department of the Ministry of Finance  of Armenia Artak Marutyan told ArmInfo.

According to him, as of today, under the concluded international  agreements, credit funds in the amount of $ 1.4 billion remain  unclaimed. As a fee for obligations for January-September of this  year, $ 972 thousand have already been paid.

Putting on the back burner:  By the end of 2018, Armenia's state debt  amounted to $ 6.922.9 million, having increased over the year by $  148.3 million instead of the planned $ 372 million. The budget  deficit was reduced and instead of the budgeted 156.9 billion AMD or  2.7% of GDP by the end of December amounted to 105.4 billion AMD or  1.8% of GDP. Out of the planned budget for 2018 in the amount of  1.527.3 billion AMD, 1.446.3 billion AMD were performed- unclaimed  amounts reached 5.3% or 80.9 billion drams.

At the same time, underperformance of current expenses reached 2.9%,  while of capital expenditures- 22%.  The share of capital investments  in GDP fell to 2.5% against the average 3.3% for 2013-2018. As a  result, the implementation rate of foreign credit programs amounted  to approximately 50-60%. By March 2019, the Ministry of Finance  stated that today Armenia has about $ 1.5 billion of unused amounts,  that is, credit agreements to raise funds have been concluded, but  the funds have remained unclaimed.

In 2019, this downward trend continued and in the first half of the  year - the ratio of capital investment to GDP fell to 0.9%. Of the  planned capital investments of 220 billion drams, by the end of July,  39 billion drams have been used. By the end of 2019, Armenia will not  meet the deficit indicator as well set in the budget for 2019. The  Ministry of Finance is inclined to the fact that according to the  situation as of December 31 this year the indicator will be much  lower than the fixed figure of 151.6 billion drams and will be about  42.5 billion drams (1.6% / GDP).

Authorities assure: finances do not tolerate too much fuss For the 9  months of 2019, the Armenian government raised 96.7 billion drams  from the borrowings envisaged by the annual plan in the amount of  225.4 billion drams or about $ 463 million (the estimated exchange  rate of the US dollar to the Armenian dram 486.55). As stated by the  Ministry of Finance, the government of the Republic of Armenia,  repaid more on external loans than it had attracted.

The "claims" of the financial authorities for attracting external  loans for January-September 2019 turned out to be even more modest:  for targeted programs  38.1 billion drams out of the planned 164.2  billion drams ($ 337.6 million) were raised, and for budget  assistance  only 0.8 billion drams out of the budgeted $ 152.1  million (74 billion drams).

As Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan told ArmInfo correspondent,  the Armenian government should be sure that there are no risks  associated with capital expenditures. "I think yes, we should hurry,  but hurry slowly and not at the expense of risks. The final result of  this path will be the transparent implementation of highly effective  programs," he explained.

As a result, in January-September 2019 according to the Ministry of  Finance the total public debt of Armenia from $ 6,922.5 billion  increased by only $ 128.7 million - up to $ 7051.2. Government debt  physically increased from $ 6,372.5 billion to $ 6,539.0 billion,  while the debt of the Central Bank, on the contrary, decreased by $  37.9 million - from $ 550 million to $ 512.1 million.

External public debt in the reporting period grew by only $ 7.3  million - from $ 5 536.4 billion to $ 5 543.7 billion, and domestic  one by $ 121.4 million - from $ 1,386.1bln to $ 1,507.5bln. Moreover,  if the external public debt in dollar terms grew by $ 7.3 million,  then in dram terms - it decreased by 39.4 billion drams - to 2 638.8  billion drams. Generally, the total state debt from 3 348.8 billion  drams increased by 7.6 billion drams - up to 3 356.4 billion drams,  domestic public debt - by 47.1 billion drams - up to 717.6 billion  drams. Volatility of foreign exchange market also affected  statistics:  depreciation of SDR, EUR, and appreciation of the  national currency. Thus, if  by the end of 2018, an USD cost 483.7  drams, today settlements are based on 476 drams per US dollar.