ArmInfo.According to the results of the first quarter of this year, the debt of the Armenian government amounted to 4.3 trillion drams or $8.9 billion, of which $2.7 billion is internal debt, and $6.2 billion is external debt. Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan stated this during the meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs.
In particular, he stressed that the external debt compared to December 31, 2021, in drams terms increased by 1.3% or 38 billion drams, and domestic debt - by 6.9% or 85 billion drams.
"The fact that the state debt increased by 3% in dram terms and by 1.4% in dollar terms again indicates that we are registering the consequences of exchange rate volatility here," he said.
According to the data of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Armenia, in 2021, the state debt of Armenia increased by $1.257.2 billion (the estimated exchange rate of the Armenian dram against the US dollar was AMD 480.14) - from $7 billion 968.5 million to $9 billion 225.6 million (4 trillion 429.6 billion drams). At the same time, over the 28-year history (since Armenia gained independence), the Republic of Armenia has attracted loans in the amount of about $6.8 billion, and over the past two and a half years it has "managed" to increase the public debt by about $2 billion 358 million. As a result, the specific debt the load per capita in 2021 increased to $3.1 thousand from $2.7 thousand in 2020 (against $2.5 thousand in 2019). Of these, $2.2 thousand (against $2 thousand in 2020 and 2019) comes from external debt.
According to the approved law on the state budget for 2022, by the end of this year, the public debt will amount to 4 trillion 986 billion drams, or 63.4% of GDP (the estimated exchange rate of the Armenian dram to the dollar is AMD 477.45). By December 31, 2022, in the conditions of ensuring 7% economic growth, the government debt will decrease to 60.2% of GDP - up to 4 trillion 741 billion drams. In 2022, Armenia will allocate about 10% of all state budget expenditures or 2.7% of GDP only to service the government debt. In particular, 517.2 billion drams (about $1.048 billion) will be required to service and repay the government debt, of which 302.8 billion drams (about $613 million) will be debt repayments, and 214.4 billion drams - interest payments (about $434 million).
