YEREVAN, January 18. /ARKA/. Armenia’s overall public debt surged by $857.1 million in 2016 or by 17% from the previous year to $5.934.8 billion, according to the final data of the Ministry of Finance. In 2016 alone the debt increased by $338.5 million, or 6%.
The government’s debt increased by 18% to $5.430.1 billion and that of the Central Bank’s grew by 6% to $504.7 million.
Armenia’s external debt last year amounted to $4.798 billion, an increase of $482.1 million or 11.2% from the year before. In 2016 the share of external debt in the total public debt decreased from 85% to 80%, according to the ministry.
At the same time the domestic debt increased by $375 million, or 49.2%, to $1.136.5 billion. Its share in the total debt rose from 15% to 19%.
Earlier, finance minister Vardan Aramyan said the public debt of the country was expected to reach $5.849 billion, while the ratio of public debt to GDP was to amount of 54.5%.
“We remain in the list of countries with low debt burden and the situation is not too threatening …” he would say.
According to him, the nominal volume of the public debt in 2017 is projected at $6.245 billion.
According to the state budget, the public debt in 2016 was expected to make 49.4% of GDP. -0-
