Will Armenian dram depreciate?

“Haykakan zhamanak” daily writes, “Upon official statistics, as of September 30 Armenia’s state debt comprised USD 5 billion 594 million. Only in a month our debt has grown by USD 10 million, and from the beginning of the year—by USD 517 million.

Recently a noteworthy change is being recorded in the debt’s “anatomy.” The authorities put an emphasis not on external, but on accumulation of internal debt. If from the beginning of the year external debt has grown by 10%, then internal debt—by about 30%. The Government has sold bonds amounting USD 1 billion and should buy them back with higher interests. However, if Armenian dram depreciates, it’ll turn out that those bonds will be bought back cheaper, than the selling price. And it turns out, that the Government is interested to depreciate Armenian dram at a moment, due to which it won’t spend money on internal debt service.”