YEREVAN, October 13. /ARКА/. The Committee on Financial, Credit, and Budgetary Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia approved the draft law “On Amendments to the Law on Public Debt” in its first reading.
According to Deputy Minister of Finance Avag Avanesyan, the legislative initiative proposes revising the definition of “public debt,” excluding external debt and state guarantees from the Central Bank and including community debt. Avanesyan noted that with the adoption of the draft law, Armenia’s public debt-to-GDP ratio will decrease by approximately 2%.
“The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Armenia is actively cooperating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure the accurate reflection of financial management indicators in accounting and reporting in accordance with internationally recognized standards,” Avanesyan stated.
According to him, an analysis conducted jointly with the IMF revealed that in Armenia, external debt and Central Bank guarantees are accounted for as public debt, while community debt is not represented in consolidated public debt, which is contrary to international standards.
“It is planned to establish clear powers for the Ministry of Finance to issue government bonds. The purpose of adopting this legislative initiative is to ensure a modern system for regulating public debt, in line with the standards applied by international financial institutions, as well as to resolve issues and problems that arise in practice and require legislative regulation through legal regulation,” the deputy minister said.
According to Armstat, Armenia’s total public debt as of August 31, 2025, amounted to over $14.13 billion. Of the total debt, over $6.88 billion is accounted for by external debt (of which over $6.36 billion is government debt and $522.3 million is Central Bank debt), while domestic debt amounts to $7.24 billion.
