YEREVAN, April 28. /ARKA/. At the end of 2012 March Armenia’s total public debt stood at $4.196 billion, deputy finance minister, Atom Janjughazyan, who is also the country’s chief treasurer, told reporters today. He said the external public debt amounted to $3.634 billion, of which $3 billion were owed by the government and the rest by the Central Bank.

According to him, the domestic public debt in the first quarter totaled $562.2 million. Janjughazyan argued that the size of the external debt does not pose a risk to the economy, even after having doubled after the crisis.

He said the government has sufficient resources to service its debts, but did not rule out that the foreign debt to GDP ratio may exceed 50 percent. He reminded that under the current law if the government’s overall public debt is 50 - 60% of the GDP the deficit gap should not exceed 3% of the gross domestic product. -0-