FORMER HEAD OF ARMENIAN CENTRAL BANK: SPEAKING OF CREDIT FROM RUSSIA, ONE SHOULD NOT SUBSTITUTE LIBOR+3 WITH 4% ANNUAL INTEREST
ArmInfo
2009-05-26 12:36:00
ArmInfo. Speaking of the credit from Russia, one should not substitute
Libor+3 with 4% annual interest, the former head of the Armenian
Central Bank Bagrat Asatryan told ArmInfo.
He said that by standards of an interstate credit, the price is
too high for Armenia. ‘Let’s call things by their proper names:
Libor+3 is not 4%. No one knows how Libor will change in 10 years’,
B. Asatryan explained. In addition, he said, it is not clear what
sectors this credit will be directed to and which enterprises will
receive financing. B. Asatryan does not rule out that repayment
of this credit may turn into continuation of the Property for Debt
program. ‘The funds are likely to be invested in the enterprises fully
or partially belonging to Russia’, he said. On May 20 Russian Finance
Minister Aleksey Kudrin and Armenian Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan
signed an agreement on provision of a 500 million US dollar credit
by Russia. The credit maturity is 15 years, the interest Libor+3. The
agreement provides for a 5-year grace period.