YEREVAN, August 22. / ARKA /. The Armenian government has made a set of amendments to the “Law on Profit Tax", which will exempt non-residents’ income earned from investing in the Armenian government USD-denominated bonds from income tax.

Finance minister David Sargsyan told a government session today the amendments are  designed to encourage non-residents to invest in  Armenian Eurobonds.

Earlier Armenia, rated Baa2 by Moody's and BB- by Fitch, has hired Deutsche Bank, HSBC and JP Morgan to lead the issue of its debut US dollar-denominated Eurobonds.

“The government approved finance minister's proposal about an agreement with lead-managers to issue Eurobonds. Three companies - Deutsche Bank, HSBC and JP Morgan have been selected as lead-managers of the issue," the finance ministry said in a statement on its website.

In May, Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan said the sovereign planned to raise USD500m through its first Eurobond sometime this year.

The government plans to use the proceeds to repay the country's USD500m debt to Russia, which it received in 2009 to help it through the financial crisis. -0-