YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. In 2018 Armenia will continue to remain in the list of countries with less foreign debt burden, finance minister Vardan Aramyan said during the discussion of the 2018 state budget draft at the joint session of parliamentary standing committees, reports Armenpress.

The minister presented the factors which allow to make such a claim. Minister Aramyan said majority of foreign loans provided to Armenia – 65% are in privileged terms. “Thus, when we speak from the perspective of debt management, the structure of the debt is very important. It is an accepted rule that the loans provided by international financial organizations are mainly privileged loans and there are mainly no external crisis in the world in terms of them. The interest rate is also important. In Armenia, majority of loans are at fixed interest rate which shows that for us the majority of flows is visible in terms of debt management and we don’t predict expectations”, the minister said.

He added that the average term comfort zone for debt repayment in the international practice is 8-11 years, and Armenia is in 8.5 years repayment zone which means that here as well the risks are not high.

He clarified that the maximum threshold of foreign debt-GDP ratio for countries with less foreign debt burden is 48%, and for Armenia this ratio will be 41% in the end of 2018. Moreover, the minister noted that at the moment this ratio is 43%, and next year it will decrease to 41%.

The maximum threshold of foreign debt-export ratio for countries with less foreign debt burden is 132%, and for Armenia this ratio is expected to be 113% in 2018.