ArmInfo.By the end of 2019, the level of public debt will be below the level set in the RA Law "On the State Budget for 2019" due to the low level of fulfillment of targeted credit programs. This was stated by Minister of Finance of Armenia Atom Dzhandzhugazyan on December 7 at a meeting with reporters.
According to Dzhandzhugazyan, within the framework of the Medium-Term Expenditures Program for 2019-2021, the financial authorities predicted a gradual decrease in the level of government debt to GDP - below the level of 50%. The republic was expected to close the year 2019 with a debt above this mark. Meanwhile, it is already clear today that by the end of this year, government debt will be a little over 49% of GDP, and in 2020 it is expected that the figure will reach about 48.2%. "Armenia continues to be a country with a low debt burden," the head of the Ministry of Finance concluded.
It should be noted that the state debt of Armenia by November 1, 2019 exceeded $ 7.1 billion (3.4 trillion drams). According to preliminary data of the RA Ministry of Finance provided by ArmInfo Statcommittee, as of November 1 of this year external public debt amounted to $ 5.6 billion (2.7 trillion drams) or 78.3%, and internal exceeded $ 1.5 billion (735 billion drams) or 21.7%.
According to the forecasts laid down in the basis of the draft law "On Public Debt for 2020", according to the results of 2020, the state debt of Armenia will reach 3.705 trillion drams ($ 7.780 billion) or 52.2% of GDP. At the same time, by December 31, 2020, government debt will amount to 3.490 trillion drams ($ 7.330 billion) or 49.2% of GDP, thus decreasing by 1.1 percentage points from the expected by the end of 2019 3.305 trillion drams ($ 6.940 billion) or 50, 3% of GDP.
As a result, according to the document, the repayment and servicing of the government debt of Armenia in the next year will require 453.9 billion drams (about 953.5 million), not counting the $ 402 million that the republic was supposed to send to repay the first tranche of Eurobonds, scheduled for 30 September 2020 The financial authorities have already decided the issue by issuing the third tranche of Armenian sovereign securities.
According to the updated in October this year The World Bank forecast that the ratio of the state debt of Armenia to GDP in 2019 will decrease to 52.6% from the actual 55.8% in 2018, with a further decrease in 2020 to 51.7%.