Conservative behavior is necessary for attracting new loans, says finance minister

Armenian finance minister Vardan Aramyan says there is a need to adopt conservative behavior for attracting new loans.

In a meeting with reporters on September 25, the minister said the Armenian government has numerous loan programs which are at the negotiation stage and tried to make this process more conservative.

“I don’t want in this case to use the word suspend since we have already signed agreements which suppose over 1.7 billion USD investment in our economy during the upcoming 7-8 years. In addition to this, in order to be able to effectively increase that 1.7 billion USD volume, we should have a conservative behavior”, the finance minister said.

He added that on the one hand the government must stabilize the debt, and on the other hand, it should strengthen the economic growth and increase the basis. “These issues must be balanced with each other. That’s why in order to avoid problems in future we should have a strict conservative behavior and take new loans with rules”, the minister said, adding that priority must be given to those programs that can significantly increase the productivity of any sector. “The third direction is that we should put more focus on regional programs. This means that we consider dangerous the fact that over 60% of our GDP is formed in Yerevan and its adjacent parts. We should work so that economy will be boosted in other parts as well. These are the criteria we should be guided by for attracting loans. If there are strictly necessary programs, we will start negotiations”, Vardan Aramyan said.