YEREVAN, 14 January. /ARKA/. Armenia’s state debt as of the end of September 2024 stood at $12.5 billion, exceeding the previous year’s figure by 5.5%, Armenian Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan said.
‘The rise was due to the change in the exchange rate, as at the end of the year the US dollar exchange rate was AMD 404.8 and as of 30 September it was AMD 387.3,’ he said at a session of the parliamentary committee on financial-credit and budgetary issues on Monday.
Hovhannisyan also said that 52 per cent of the total state debt is domestic debt and 48 per cent is foreign debt, explaining that this difference is due to the fact that resident companies have bonds issued in foreign currency.
According to him, the major component of domestic debt is treasury bonds, which account for 90.8 per cent, the major component of the government’s external debt is external loans (75.6 per cent), while 17.4 per cent is accounted for by foreign currency government bonds purchased by non-residents.
‘The decrease in external debt was due to the reduction of external loans and treasury bonds in foreign currency purchased by non-residents,’ he said.
At the same time, Hovhannisyan noted that the risk indicators of the government’s debt portfolio are at the benchmark level.
‘The term to average maturity is 7 years, the benchmark is 7-10 years, i.e. it is necessary to work on prolongation, but it should be done reasonably, so that the expenses related to debt servicing do not increase,’ he said.
According to Armstat, Armenia’s total public debt as of 30 September 2024 amounted to $12,501.472 million, having increased by $36.924 million compared to 31 August 2024. In the structure of total debt, $6,295.855 million is external debt (down $3.739 million over the month), while domestic debt rose by $40.664 million to $6,205.616 million in September. -0-
