YEREVAN. – Armenia has the opportunity to increase its national debt. Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan stated this during Friday’s debates on the 2019 state budget performance report, at the joint sitting of the standing committees of the National Assembly.

Thus, according to him, Armenia's national debt in 2019 amounted to 7 billion 324 million dollars, of which 6 billion 835 million dollars were of the government, and the rest—of the Central Bank of Armenia. "Moreover, the foreign debt of the government amounted to 5 billion 298 million dollars. If we look at this issue in terms of total debt, the national debt was 53.6% of GDP, and the government's debt—50.6 percent, "Janjughazyan explained.

At the same time, he noted that with such indicators, Armenia is one of the countries with the lowest level of national debt. Thus, as the head of the Ministry of Finance assured, it is considered that the national debt of Armenia is completely overseeable. "This gives us [Armenia] reason to believe that we still have some untapped resources that we can implement to meet our needs in connection with the coronavirus pandemic," the minister said, adding that Armenia is fully creditworthy and able to raise additional funds—in the form of national debt.

Atom Janjughazyan noted, however, that the Armenian authorities are in no way going to abuse this opportunity and draw more funds than necessary.