On 5 June, the Armenian National Assembly held a debate on the performance of the national budget in 2018. The Minister of Finance, Atom Janjughazyan, presented the data to the lawmakers.

By the end of 2018, the state debt of Armenia reached $6.923 billion, explained Janjughazyan. At the same time, he said that $6.373 billion is the actual amount of debt of the government. The remaining $550 million is the debt of the central bank. The share of the government’s debt is still at the same level. Thus, $1.390 billion accounted for domestic debt, and the remaining $5 billion accounted for external debt. Thus, $1.390 billion accounted for domestic debt, and the remaining $5 billion for external debt.

Janjugazyan also noted that the debt to GDP ratio has changed, and, according to the 2018 data, Armenia’s public debt amounted to 51.4% of the GDP. At the same time, according to him, the total public debt amounted to 55.8% of the GDP. “For all these reasons, Armenia is considered a country with a low debt burden,” the Minister of Finance noted.

Revenues of the state budget of Armenia in 2018 amounted to 1.342 trillion drams, which were 98.3% of the planned revenues. The actual expenses in 2018 amounted to 1.447 trillion drams, which amounted to a total budget deficit of 105 billion drams.

In the area of economic growth, a growth of 5.2% was recorded in 2018 in comparison to the forecasted growth of 4,5%. “It should be noted that this happened when the world economy grew by only 3.6%, the EU economy grew by 2.1%, and the average growth rate in the EAEU countries was 2.5%,” Janjughazyan added.

The Finance Minister still expressed concerns in regards to Armenia’s economic growth indicators due to the fact that 4,8% of the 5,2% growth where accumulated in the service sector solely. “That makes us believe that the declared objectives in the government's program do not have an alternative. Hence our focus should now be on reshaping the economy. Our evaluations do not reveal changes absolutely everywhere. Our ambitions are beyond the recorded outcomes,” he said. He further highlighted that the political speculations in dealing with national security and foreign relations questions had an impact on the failure to fulfill all of the economic and financial obligations.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, on the other hand, was delighted by the report. He noted that despite the political volatilities, the government managed to maintain the macro-economic records stable and even secure certain positive dynamics. “It is probably not possible to find a similar precedent in world history to demonstrate that large-scale changes as these would have remained unaccompanied by economic shocks in virtually any country,” he said.

He especially highlighted last year's economic growth of 5.2%. “It is important to emphasize, nonetheless, that the draft approved by the previous government, relied on 4.5% as its ceiling. That is to say, despite the global political twists and turns, our government did manage to exceed the plan outlined by the predecessors. With the 2018 state budget being implemented, the government does not have any unfulfilled obligations anymore.”

Pashinyan cited two major factors accounting for the macro-economic stability. “First, it is our great pleasure to note that certain accomplished institutions in Armenia did play their essential role during the period of the Velvet Revolution, managing to maintain stability regardless of the turmoil. The second reason was that the revolution in Armenia was velvet indeed, 'velvet was in abundance' despite the repeatedly voiced calls for much more hardline revolutionary tactics,” he said adding that the essential factor for such progress was  the collaborative work between the parliament and the executive.