ArmInfo. In Armenia, the per capita debt burden reached $4.6 thousand by October 1, 2025 (compared to $4.1 thousand the previous year), representing a 12% increase. Moreover, the per capita debt burden from external debt rose from $2.1 thousand to $2.2 thousand (by 4.8%), while the per capita debt burden from domestic debt increased from $2 thousand to $2.4 thousand (by 20%).
This is observed amidst weak population growth in Armenia over the year by 0.8%, or by 23.1 thousand people, to 3.091 million by October 1, 2025. A year earlier, there was a slightly lower growth in the per capita debt burden at 8%, accompanied by a more pronounced population growth of 2.5%, or 73.6 thousand people.
The coverage ratio of external debt by gold and foreign exchange reserves by October 1, 2025, increased to 62.1% from 56.8% a year earlier, amidst an annual growth of both reserves by 20% and external debt by 9.6%. For comparison, it should be noted that a year earlier, both external debt and reserves were in decline - by 3.4% and 14.2%, respectively. It is noteworthy that in September 2025, Armenia's gross international reserves reached a new high record of $4.3 billion, while external debt decreasing from its historical maximum ($6.945 billion in July of this year) for three consecutive months, making way for domestic debt. According to the Statistical Committee of Armenia, the country's public debt reached $14.2 billion (5.4 trillion drams) as of October 1, 2025, accelerating its annual growth from 10.4% to 13.5%. This is due to improved external debt dynamics, while domestic debt growth continued to slow down. Specifically, external debt reversed its annual growth rate from a 3.4% decline to 9.6%, exceeding $6.9 billion (2.6 trillion drams), while domestic debt continued to stall in growth, from 29.1% to 17.5%, reaching $7.3 billion (2.8 trillion drams). Moreover, domestic debt began to outperform external debt in July of this year, subsequently strengthening its dominance by a more pronounced margin each month. The Government's share of external debt increased from 91.7% to 92.4% year-on-year, while the Central Bank's share declined from 8.3% to 7.6%. In absolute terms, the debt amounted to $6.4 billion and $522.3 million, respectively. Moreover, both the Central Bank and the Government's external debt experienced an improvement in dynamics, with the debt transitioning from decline to growth.
Specifically, the Government's external debt trend reversed from a 3.5% decline to a double-digit 10.5% increase, while the Central Bank's external debt trended from a 2% decline to a meager 0.1% increase. In the structure of the domestic public debt, government bonds dominate, with their share increasing to 92% by October 2025 from 90.8% a year earlier ($6.7 billion or 2.6 trillion drams), despite the slowdown in the annual growth of the absolute value from 34% to 19%. The share of Armenian Eurobonds in annual terms decreased from 8.9% to 7.2%, amounting to $523.4 million or 200.3 billion drams, with an acceleration of the decline from 5.6% to 5.8%. The remaining 0.8% (compared to 0.3% a year earlier) was accounted for by internal guarantees - $63.5 million or 24.3 billion drams, the annual growth of which sharply accelerated from 22.2% to 3.6 times.
Recall, on March 5, 2025, Armenia successfully placed $750 million in Eurobonds on international stock markets, with a yield of 7.1% and a maturity of 10 years (settlement date - March 12, 2025). The coupon yield of the new Eurobonds is 6.75%. The Eurobonds were listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). International rating agencies assigned the following ratings to the Armenian sovereign securities: S&P - BB- (outlook "Stable"), Fitch - BB- (outlook "Stable"), and Moody's - Ba3 (outlook "Stable"). This is the fifth tranche of Armenia's Eurobonds on the international capital market, the issuance of which was envisaged by the RA Law "On the State Budget for 2025" and included in the Borrowing Program for 2025. Net proceeds from the Eurobond issue will be used to cover the state budget deficit (609 billion drams - ed.).
It should be noted that the public debt-to-GDP ratio for 2024 decreased from 50.51% to 49.96%, with both public debt growth slowing from 11.4% to 8.4% and GDP growth slowing from 8.3% to 5.9%. Meanwhile, the external debt-to-GDP ratio further decreased for 2024 from 27.7% to 26.8%, with external debt dynamics reversing from a 1% increase to a 0.7% decline. In Armenia, the per capita debt burden increased from $4,000 to $4.2 thousand in 2024. Moreover, the per capita debt burden from external debt decreased slightly from $2.2 thousand to $2.1 thousand, while from domestic debt it continued to grow, moving from $1.8 thousand to $2.1 thousand. And this was observed amidst an increase in Armenia's population over the year by 2.8%, or by 84.6 thousand people - to 3.076 million people by January 1, 2025, with an increase in the public debt by 8.4%, or almost $1 billion. This population growth was mainly provoked by citizens of Artsakh forcibly displaced to Armenia in September 2023, and only to a lesser extent by people relocated from the Russian Federation who arrived and settled in the country, rather than by natural population growth. The ratio of foreign debt coverage to gold and foreign exchange reserves increased from 55.4% to 57.1% in 2024, amid a 0.7% decline in external debt and a 2.3% increase in reserve. The reserves reached a historic high of $4.2 billion in August 2023, but began to decline monthly, with occasional attempts to regain lost ground. However, it was not until March 2025, that reserves were able to approach their record high.
Armenia's public debt exceeded $12.8 billion as of January 1, 2025, with $6.454 billion being external debt and $6.388 billion - domestic debt. Moreover, according to a special note in the statistical report, the structure of domestic debt includes the issue of benchmark long-term government bonds, with 206.358 billion drams (as of December 29, 2023) and 13.764 billion drams (as of December 30, 2024), according to the Government's decision of December 28, 2023, allocated to financial organizations as a concession for financial claims (property rights) arising from the tragic September events in Artsakh, when the entire population was forcibly abandoned.
