790 million dollar loan by September
The government's talks on loans ended successfully today after the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund came to an agreement. The 500 million dollar loan from the Russian Federation has already been distributed, said RA Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan today to "A1+".
The Armenian government and the World Bank signed an agreement today for a 60 million dollar budget loan which, according to the Minister, will e aimed at closing the deficit.
The Asian Development Bank decided last night to grant Armenia an 80 million dollar loan, but the largest loan will be the 150 million dollar loan from the IMF. The IMF board has already taken the decision and, according to Tigran Davtyan, the government intends to convene a special National Assembly session to rafity the agreement.
"This is a serious agreement in order for us to take care of all expenses for this year. However, I must say that the we have all the necessary resources and spending will be done on time," said Davtyan.
According to Tigran Davtyan, some of the resources will be left for the 2010 state budget, especially nearly half of the loan from the IMF. A part of the loan from Russia is also foreseen for next year and nearly 24 billion drams will be used for closing this year's deficit.
Aren't all loans risky for Armenia with its huge foreign debt? In response, Davtyan said:
"It is not considered to be risky. Of course, the foreign debt will grow, but we have a rather low level of resources with 13-14% in the beginning of this year. This is the government's debt, including the debt of the Central Bank and within 1-2 years we will have a maximum 38% debt with the GDP relativity."
