Armenian economists worried about country's huge external debt
By Rashid Shirinov
Today Armenian economists and experts are very worried about the future of the country, which is likely to be worse than Armenia’s today. The state debt increases but there is no recovery of economy and the well-being of population is considerably low.
Head of the Center for Innovative and Institutional Research Atom Markaryan and former Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Bagrat Asatryan made a particular accent on Armenia’s external debt at a press conference on November 8.
Asatryan noted that the external debt is becoming evil for the economic development of the country.
“Over the past 10 years, our debt is accumulating, but the economy is not growing. Today we are in a money pit, and we pay one-tenth of the income for arrears – this is the ‘legacy’ that we pass on to our generations,” he said.
Margaryan also believes that the foreign debt of Armenia is alarming as it reaches the prescribed threshold, and there are already talks about modernization of fiscal rules, which means raising this threshold.
"Of course, they say that this is done for the case of a force majeure, but we all know that our country, in fact, has been in force majeure for 25 years,” the economist said.
Previously, Armenia’s Zhamanak newspaper reported that the government intends to amend the law on state debt before the end of this year. Under the current law, the state debt of Armenia cannot exceed 60 percent of GDP, but it will obviously exceed it by the end of this year. As of the end of August this year, it amounted to $6.259 billion, and continues to grow by tens of million dollars every month.
Under the proposed amendment, Armenia will be able to attract more debt if needed. In particular, the government notes these loans will be needed in case of a military situation or global and regional economic crises that may affect the country.
However, it is clear that the authorities are lying again. The state debt of Armenia has been constantly increasing for decades even if there were no crises or wars. The government is just unable to stop borrowing – that’s why the only thing it can do is to raise the debt threshold, thus further killing Armenia's economy.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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