Armenia placed an issue of USD 750 million USD-denominated Eurobonds with a maturity of 10 years and a coupon yield of 3.6%. The placement yield was 3.875%, and the demand exceeded USD 2.5 billion.
At the briefing with the journalists today, the RA Minister of Finance Atom Janjughazyan said that there is nothing extraordinary, as the RA Law “On State Budget for 2021” has already envisaged debt attraction to finance the budget deficit.
“The USD 500 million, approximately 242 billion Armenian drams, is envisaged by the State Budget as a source of deficit financing by attracting foreign currency bonds from the international financial market. In other words, this is not an inclusion of additional, unaccounted for and unprecedented debt, but, on the contrary, the execution of a source for 2021 deficit financing foreseen by law”- noted the Minister of Finance.
However, according to the Minister, given the favorable market conditions, it was expedient to attract USD 250 million which was more than the program in the amount of USD 500 million envisaged by the budget.
Minister Atom Janjughazyan informed that the amount equivalent to the mentioned USD 250 million will be registered in the stabilization deposit account as a financial cushion, if necessary, to be used later to solve the problems emerging during the year.
Referring to the concerns over the growth of the public debt of Armenia, Atom Janjughazyan noted that the Ministry of Finance, as the public debt managing body, is also concerned about that issue and added:
“"Naturally, we constantly monitor debt developments in the scope of our risk management knowledge and publish the results. In other words, we constantly identify the debt-related risks and how debt is assessed today”.