Minister of Finance: If there were no financial obligations of   Artsakh government and citizens, RA government debt would be lower  than in 2022

ArmInfo. After the Armenian government assumed most of the financial obligations of the government and citizens of Artsakh in December 2023, government debt by the end of 2023 in relation to GDP increased by 2.2 percentage points. If there was no such debt, the level of RA debt would be lower than the level of 2022.This was stated by Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan on May 29 in parliament at a hearing on the implementation of the budget for the past year.

Thus, according to the minister, the level of government debt to GDP  was 48.1%, or 1.4 percentage points more than in 2022. At the same  time, it was lower than the planned by 1.7 percentage points,  Hovhannisyan indicated.

Notably, by its decision of December 21, 2023, the Cabinet of  Ministers assumed most of the financial obligations of the government  and citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh. Decisions have been signed to   write off 469 obligations of individuals who have consumer loans  secured by gold.  The  corresponding process is based on the decision  of the Government of  Armenia dated December 28, 2023.  Earlier,  ArmInfo reported that the Armenian government decided to  forgive the  financial obligations of forcibly displaced citizens of  Artsakh on  consumer loans provided on the security of gold products,   registering them as state support. As the head of the Ministry of   Finance of the Republic of Armenia Vahe Hovhannisyan stated on April   4 at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, the current project   proposes not only to forgive debts on loans secured by gold, which as   of December 29, 2023 do not exceed 5 million drams (there are only 5   of them), but also to give the opportunity to repay pledged gold.   Although by the December decision the debts were assigned to the   Cabinet, the pledged gold (about 1,800 citizens, weighing about 30   kg) still remains in the banks, he explained. We are talking about   financial obligations of about 6 thousand citizens in the amount of   approximately 2.8 billion drams, the minister clarified.  Prior to   that, by decision of December 21, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers   assumed most of the financial obligations of the government and   citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh. In this regard, treasury bonds were   issued in favor of financial organizations with a maximum nominal   value of up to 225 billion drams (for a period of 10 years) - in the   amount of 70% of the amount of monetary claims (property rights)   assigned to the Government of the Republic of Armenia through these   organizations. It was noted that as of December 29, 2023, the  obligations (bonds and loans) of the government of Nagorno-Karabakh   and the funds formed  by it, legal entities and individuals of   Nagorno-Karabakh subject to reconstruction amount to about 315   billion drams, servicing most of which, due to the situation, created   around Nagorno-Karabakh became impossible.  According to the Ministry  of Finance, in 2023, Armenia increased its public debt by 11.4% or $1  billion 207.6 million - up to $11 billion 845.3 million. During the  reporting period, government debt in American currency increased by  $1 billion 208.3 million or by 12 % - from $10 billion 086.4 million  by the end of 2022 to $11 billion 294.6 million, and in drams - by  602.3 billion drams or 15.2% - up to 4 trillion 571.9 billion drams.