ArmInfo.By the end of 2021, the debt of the Armenian government will approach 70% of GDP. Meanwhile, the tax and budget rules established by the law "On the Budget System of the Republic of Armenia" oblige the government to submit to the parliament a project to return to the legal framework in case of exceeding the 60% threshold for government debt.
This was stated on April 27 by the MP from the "Prosperous Armenia" faction, chairman of the Standing Committee on Financial, Credit and Budgetary Issues Arkady Khachatryan during the discussion of the report on the implementation of the state budget for 9 months of 2020.
As the Minister of Finance of Armenia Atom Jamjugazyan explained, the financial authorities of the country are working on a corresponding project, which involves the implementation of fiscal consolidation until 2026, which will reduce the state debt from 70% to 60% of GDP. These paths, according to Janjugazyan, are already predetermined by law and do not require special "discoveries"from financiers. In particular, the proposed efforts relate to achieving a higher level of manageability of current expenditures and increasing investment in infrastructure projects, which will, in turn, increase the potential for economic growth.
At the same time, as the head of the Ministry of Finance explained, the agency does not set itself the task of reducing the absolute value of the government debt. The goal of the Ministry of Finance is to increase the ability to service the national debt. "This can only be achieved by achieving economic growth," said Atom Janjugazyan.
It should be noted that at the end of March 2020, the state debt reached $8.6 billion, the government debt amounted to $8.1 billion. By the end of 2019, the national debt was $7.9 billion, and the government debt was $7.5 billion. At the same time, the revenues of the Armenian state treasury amounted to about 1 trillion 560 million 655 thousand drams, expenses - 1 trillion 894 million 647 thousand drams. The deficit exceeded the planned level of 2.3% of GDP or about 161 billion drams, reaching 334 billion drams or 5.5% of GDP. The deficit was at the level of 333 million 991 thousand drams.
