ARMENIA HAS NO EXTERNAL DEBT SERVICE PROBLEM
ARKA
July 22, 2009
YEREVAN, July 22. /ARKA/. Armenia will not have any external debt
service problems, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan told reporters.
According to him, all the debts the Armenian Government has
accumulated are with a long grace period at an annual interest rate
of 0.75%. Armenia can repay them for 45 years.
"We are trying to form a soft credit portfolio easy to serve in the
future," Sargsyan said.
He reminded the journalists that Armenia attracts funds from the
WB, IMF, ADB, as well as from Russia. The Russian credit has been
attracted at the highest annual interest rate (LIBOR+3%), with a
4-year grace period.
"At present Armenia has a number of agreements: with the IMF on the
attraction of US $620mln credits during the coming 3-4 years, with the
World Bank on US $540mln for four years, with Russia on US $500mln,
and with the Asian Development Bank on US $500mln," Sargsyan said.
According to him, the funds will allow the Government to improve the
country’s infrastructures and carry out reforms in various areas as
they are purpose loans.
The Premier stressed that Armenia has a rather "light" external debt,
which allowed of increase this year for the Government to carry through
anti-crisis reforms and temper the negative impact of external economic
factors on the country’s economic.
"Since the Armenian external debt is within 50% of the country’s GDP,
and Armenia has borrowed long-term low-interest credits, we are not
afraid of any problems with external debt service. Moreover, even if
we have any fears, we will not be able to attract external funds,"
Sargsyan said.
The Premier pointed out that, in cooperation with the WB and the IMF,
Armenia is implementing reforms and making long-term forecasts of
the macroeconomic situation in the country to assess possible risks.
As of March 31, 2009, Armenia’s national debt totaled 754bln AMD
against 563.5bln AMD on March 31. The country’s foreign debt totaled
US $1,778.8mln (657.9bln AMD) – an increase of US $237.1mln or 15.3% .