Tuesday, February 02, 2021 Armenian Official Confirms New Eurobond Issue February 02, 2021 • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Martin Galstian, the governor of the Armenian Central Bank, speaks with journalists, February 2, 2021. Central Bank Governor Martin Galstian confirmed on Tuesday reports that Armenia has issued its fourth Eurobond worth $750 million to manage its increased public debt and budget deficit. Galstian said that the dollar-denominated bonds, repayable in 10 years at an annual yield of almost 3.9 percent, attracted strong interest from foreign investors. “Never before has there been so much demand for bonds issued by Armenia,” he told reporters. “This has to do with a number of factors. International financial institutions and investors have accumulated large amounts of cash, and they are looking to see where to invest them.” The Armenian government has not yet commented on the latest Eurobond issue. It is not clear whether it plans to use the proceeds to fully or partly buy back $500 million in similar bonds sold at a 4.2 percent yield in September 2019. The government needs cash to finance its 2021 budget deficit projected at 341 billion drams ($658 million) or 5.3 percent of GDP. Under its budget bill approved by the parliament in December, 60 percent of the deficit is to be covered from external resources. The government already resorted to additional external borrowing last year to make up for a significant shortfall in its tax revenues resulting from an economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, Armenia’s public debt rose by $647 million, to almost $8 billion, in the course of 2020. The debt is projected to pass the $9 billion mark this year. According to the latest Central Bank estimates cited by Galstian, the Armenian economy contracted by 7.8 percent last year but should grow by about 2 percent in 2021. The government expects slightly faster growth. Kocharian To Again Visit Moscow February 02, 2021 • Robert Zargarian Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian attends his trial in Yerevan, February 2, 2021. The judge presiding over the trial of Robert Kocharian has allowed the former Armenian president to visit Moscow for the second time in less than two months, it emerged on Tuesday. A trial prosecutor, Gevorg Baghdasarian, revealed the permission and demanded an explanation from the judge, Anna Danibekian, during the latest court hearing on coup charges leveled against Kocharian and three other former officials. “We don’t know the grounds on which Robert Kocharian is allowed to leave Armenia,” complained Baghdasarian. He said Danibekian should have consulted with the prosecution before making the decision communicated to the Armenian police. “If you think that the court’s decision must be appealed you are not deprived of that possibility,” countered the judge. Kocharian was allowed to be absent from the country from February 3-8. His spokesman Victor Soghomonian told the “Hraparak” newspaper that the ex-president will fly to Moscow to take part in a meeting of the board of directors of a major Russian corporation, AFK Sistema. Kocharian has been a board member since 2009. He reportedly attended a board meeting during his previous trip to the Russian capital in mid-December. The 66-year-old, who governed Armenia from 1998-2008, had not been able to attend any Sistema meetings since being first arrested in July 2018. He was most recently released from jail on bail in May 2020. Sistema’s main shareholder, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was reportedly one of four wealthy Russian businessmen who paid the bulk of the $4.1 million bail set by Armenia’s Court of Appeals. Russia has criticized the criminal proceedings launched against Kocharian. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made a point of congratulating him on his birthday anniversaries and praising his legacy. Some Kocharian loyalists claimed that Putin spoke with his former Armenian counterpart by phone during the latter’s December trip to Moscow. Kocharian’s office did not confirm that. The ex-president, his former chief of staff Armen Gevorgian and Armenia’s two former top generals, Seyran Ohanian and Yuri Khachaturov, stand accused of overthrowing the “constitutional order” after a disputed presidential election held during the final weeks of Kocharian’s decade-long rule. The charges stem from a deadly post-election unrest in Yerevan. All four defendants reject them as politically motivated. Speaking during Tuesday’s court hearing, Kocharian insisted that he is tried for his handling of a “political process.” Kocharian has been at loggerheads with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government ever since it took office following the “Velvet Revolution” of April-May 2018. He has joined opposition groups in blaming Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh and demanding his resignation. Kocharian said last week that that he and his political allies will participate in snap parliamentary elections even if they are held by Armenia’s current government. “We will participate and win,” he declared. Azeri Soldiers Detained, Freed In Armenia February 02, 2021 • Nane Sahakian Armenian -- Armenian army officers at a new border post in Syunik province bordering Azerbaijan, December 11, 2020. The Russian military announced late on Monday that it has secured the release of two Azerbaijani army soldiers detained after crossing into Armenia at the weekend. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said they were detained by officers of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) near the village of Tegh in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province. It gave no details of the incident. A ministry statement said the Azerbaijani servicemen were freed at the request of Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. The NSS and the Armenian Defense Ministry did not comment on the incident on Tuesday. Tegh’s mayor, Nerses Shadunts, confirmed the detentions but said he is not allowed to disclose their circumstances. “The situation here is not tense right now,” Shadunts told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “There is no panic among local people. Everything is normal.” “As for our border guards and army, you can conclude that everyone was on duty and vigilant and properly did their job,” he said. Tegh is located close to the so-called Lachin corridor that connects Armenia to Karabakh and is controlled by the Russian peacekeepers. The rural community also borders the rest of the Lachin district which was handed back to Azerbaijan under the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the war in Karabakh on November 10. During the six-week war Russia deployed soldiers and border guards to Syunik to help the Armenian military defend the region located southwest of Karabakh against possible Azerbaijani attacks. One of the Russian border guard posts was set up near Tegh. Russian troops also patrol sections of the main regional highway straddling the Soviet-era Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Armenian Central Bank Again Raises Key Interest Rate February 02, 2021 Armenia -- A statue symbolizing the national currency, the dram, outside the Central Bank building in Yerevan. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) raised its main interest rate on Tuesday for the second time in less than two months. The CBA’s governing board set the refinancing rate at 5.5 percent, up by 0.25 percentage points. The board already raised it by 1 percentage point on December 15 following a nearly 6 percent depreciation of the national currency, the dram. The dram’s exchange rate has remained largely stable since then. The CBA said on January 13 that it will again resort to currency interventions to ensure “the normal functioning of Armenia’s financial markets.” In a statement issued later in the day, the bank attributed the latest rate increase to stronger inflationary pressures on the Armenian economy. It said that the increased cost of imported foodstuffs “considerably” pushed up consumer price inflation in the country in December. CBA data shows that Armenia’s foreign exchange reserves fell from $2.6 billion in August 2020 to $2.2 billion in November before growing by over $360 million in December. The Central Bank cut its benchmark rate for four times between March and September last year as the Armenian economy plunged into recession due to the coronavirus pandemic. Armenia’s economic outlook worsened further following the ensuing outbreak of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10. The country’s GDP shrunk by an estimated 8.5 percent in 2020. In its 2021 state budget approved by the parliament in December, the Armenian government forecast a GDP growth rate of 3.2 percent for this year. The International Monetary Fund expects the Armenian economy to expand by only 1 percent in 2021. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.