Who will cover this debt? Armenia’s budget and people, and diversification

Armenia will take a new loan from the World Bank to supplement the state budget. appropriate the decision was held at today’s government session. It is noted that with the loan amount of 170.3 million euros, the legislation “On Economic Competition” will be improved, additional legal guarantees will be provided to investors, and the powers of the Commission for the Protection of Competition and Consumer Rights of Armenia will be expanded to prevent price speculation and other anti-competitive actions.

Basically, this loan is another debt, which will become a new burden for citizens, especially in the context of the state debt, which has increased by almost 8 billion in recent years.

168․amin his comments about the debt policy economist Hrant Mikayelyan mentioned: “We see that the government of the day makes very big promises during the pre-election phase or makes some expenses that were not even planned in the budget. for political reasons, the government spends resources that will later lead to greater debt.

And who will close this debt? The budget of Armenia and the people of Armenia, at the expense of which the budget is created.”

By the way, in the last one or two years, for example, 102 million euros of credit was provided by the WB to prepare for the introduction of universal health insurance and to repair polyclinics, 70.4 million euros for the program to reduce irrigation and drinking water losses and increase the climate resilience of systems, $100 million approved in 2023 and 2026. $200 million in loans approved in March (Economic Transformation Program) aimed at digitizing the business environment, promoting small businesses and attracting investments, etc.

Referring to another political and economic issue that has become more acute these days, the toughening statements from Russia about the EU-EEU election and the possible positioning of Armenia in that context, the specialist first noticed why these two associations cannot objectively be combined.

“There are two reasons: economic and political. The economic reason is as follows: both the EAEU and the EU are closed zones, and if any country joins both, then the line opens between those 2, by which their customs border is violated and it is possible to re-export countless goods and without duties. Thus, the meaning of customs unions is lost, and Russia is especially worried because its market is smaller and less protected.

As for the political reason. because in the last 2 years, the European Union began to declare Russia as an enemy, a possible military opponent, and recently, for example, provided Ukraine with a military loan of 90 billion dollars, therefore, it considers any relationship, development in the direction of Russia as hostile.”

According to Hrant Mikayelyan, the view from the government circles that the current policy has a tendency to ensure the diversification of Armenia and reduce dependence on the Russian Federation, does not correspond to reality, because with these steps Armenia will not achieve any diversification, it will only break the relations with Russia.

“I claim that this was the goal, motivated by the policy of the West itself. In other words, there is no goal of diversification. it is just a propaganda statement. The reality is that there is a desire to reduce the level of relations with Russia,” he added.

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