YEREVAN. – An additional 260 billion drams of national debt shall be added in 2020. Armenia’s Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan stated this during a talk with journalists on Thursday.

According to him, the country’s economy is now projected at 6 trillion 485 billion drams instead of the 7 trillion 955 billion. "Tax revenues will be 170 billion less than it was with the 2020 budget," he said. "Instead of the planned 161 billion drams, the deficit will be 324 billion drams; that is, 5% of the GDP, although initially it was assumed to be 2.3%."

The minister explained that in the current conditions, a change in the amount of Armenia’s national debt is inevitable, and Armenia is among the countries where most of this amount falls on foreign debt, although the level of foreign debt is quite low.

"As for the 0.7% economic growth forecast by the Central Bank, it may be the same now," the minister stressed. "But by the end of the year, we forecast a decline of up to 2.9 percent from the planned 4.9 percent. A 4.1% of the GDP will be used to finance capital expenditures."

Janjughazyan added, however, that the funding of social programs will not be stopped.