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.
