Armenia continues to be classified as country with low debt burden, says finance minister

Finance minister of Armenia Atom Janjughazyan informs that the state debt has stabilized thanks to the restraining fiscal policy.

During the introduction of the 2017 state budget performance at the joint session of the parliamentary standing committees, the finance minister said at the moment the state debt comprises 6.8 billion USD, from which the foreign debt comprises more than 4 billion USD.

“The level of overall debt is 58.8% of the GDP, there is a certain increase in dynamics. This is conditioned by the fiscal policy that aims at stabilizing the debt”, he added.

Commenting on the issue of the management of the foreign debt, the minister said the state debt-GDP ratio is assessed as manageable if it is less than 50%: in Armenia’s case it comprised 47.5% last year. “The next is the net current value-GDP ratio of the state debt: in this sense Armenia had 40.9% increase for that figure in 2017 which continues to classify Armenia as a country with a low debt burden”, the finance minister stated.