In the first half of 2010 Armenia spent 2.5 times as much on serving its national debt as in the first half of last year, reported the RA Ministry of Finance.

A total of 14.7bn AMD (about U.S. $38m) have been allocated for this purpose this year against 5.9bn AMD (about U.S. $15m) last year. Interestingly, the RA Government spends more to serve the internal debt. Specifically, a total of 7.8bn AMD (about U.S. $20m) were allocated to serve the internal debt against 6.9bn AMD (U.S. $18m) spent on the external debt in the first half of 2010.

The funded budgeted for serving Armenia’s national debt constitute only 3.8% of the on-budget expenditures. However, since the Government borrowed huge funds, and more bonds are issued on the domestic market, serving the national debt will become a serious burden for the state budget in the following years.

By March 1, 2010, Armenia’s external national debt had totaled U.S. $2.9bn – an annual increase of 66.6%.