By Aram Achemyan

Armenia's national debt already exceeds $9 billion. From January to July, the country’s government increased this debt by $1 billion.

According to experts, the socioeconomic problems of Armenia are deepening day by day. In particular, the decision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide a $175-million loan to Armenia came into force on August 23. As of July 31, the national debt of the country is 8.973 billion drams. The reason for taking large new debts is that Armenia has not fully recovered from the economic crisis of 2020, and therefore it needs additional “injections” to stimulate the country’s economy.

The problem is the rapid growth of this national debt and its effective use. In particular, during the first 7 months of this year, the current government of Armenia increased the national debt by $1 billion, or 12.6%, whereas in January-July, the activity of the Armenian economy was a mere 5.2%. In other words, the growth of Armenia's economy is very small, even after so many financial “injections,” and according to these data, the efficiency of national debt management is highly questionable.

At present, each and every Armenian citizen has accumulated a debt of $3,032, and the necessary preconditions have not been created to repay this debt in the future.

It is noteworthy that this year the increase in Armenia’s national debt took place in the conditions of unprecedented high tax revenues and growth of state duty revenues.

The serving government had announced that it has exceeded tax revenues by 52.5 billion drams, or 7.5%. In other words, on the one hand, tax revenues have increased in Armenia mainly due to inflation, on the other hand, the government is rapidly increasing the national debt.