YEREVAN. - The Armenian state budget deficit can be expected to reduce up to 2.8 percent by 2018.

Member of the Economic Development Assessment and Forecast Research Group of the Armenian University of Economics, Ashot Tevikyan, told tha aforementioned to journalists on Wednesday.  

In 2015, the deficit made up 4.8 percent of the budget, while in late 2016 it will most prbably constitute 4.5 percent, which is significantly higher than the planned index of 3.5 percent.

Nevertheless, reduction of up to 2.8 percent can be expected in 2018 at the expense of the growth of domestic demand, he added.

As to the state debt, the foreign debt of the republic totaled $5.35 bln as of the end of June 2016, out of which $4,39 bln or 82.1 percent is the foreign debt, the rest being the internal one.

According to the forecasts of international organizations, by the end of 2016 the overall state debt of Armenia will grow up to 52.4 percent GDP from 48.7 pecent at the end of 2015.

The growth of debt load didn't influence the country's economy since the loans are mainly long-term and low-interest.