YEREVAN. – The government of Armenia will be given flexibility in terms of spending, only in terms of implementing measures aimed at mitigating the effects of the coronavirus and the state of emergency that has been declared in the country because of it. The Minister of Finance, Atom Janjughazyan, said this during Wednesday’s National Assembly special sitting debates—in the second reading—on the bill on making amendments and additions to the law on the state budget for 2020.
In particular, he noted that there is an opinion among the deputies that the proposed draft, in principle, reviews most of the functions assigned to the National Assembly, but this is not the case.
Janjughazyan also clarified the situation with the deficit in the state budget. Thus, the amount of funds needed to pay the state budget deficit will total 260 billion drams.
According to the government, this deficit can be paid by getting new loans, issuing state treasury bonds, and the next tranche of eurobonds.
The minister informed that one of the sources of respective funding will be the International Monetary Fund, which has agreed to provide about $ 300 million to Armenia.
The minister of finance added that Armenia is considered by creditors as a stable and dynamically developing borrower country.