YEREVAN, December 13. /ARKA/. The ratio of Armenia’s public debt to gross domestic product is expected to stand at 55.4% in 2017, Vardan Aramyan, finance minister, said Tuesday at the budget system discussion in the National Assembly.

In his opinion, now the public debt is quite acceptable, and Armenia is still considered a country with good indicators.

“We are planning to reduce the public debt ratio to GDP by one percent, and legislative changes will make it possible to create favorable environment for stimulating the economy,” he said.

Gagik Minasyan, head of the National Assembly’s finance and budgetary committee, on his side, said that it is not secret that Armenia has come close to a 60-percent public debt indicator.

“But this is still not a critical indicator, and changes in the law allow taking practical measures for improving the situation,” he said.

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the country’s public debt amounted to $6 296.6 million in late October after shrinking 0.18% or by $11.3 million over one month.

The Eurasian Development Bank says that certain improvement of the fiscal position made it possible to slow down significantly the increase of the public debt.

The government’s debt has grown 0.4% over the first nine months of this year to 51.8% of GDP, while over the same period a year before it has grown by 3.3% to 47.4% of GDP and over the entire 2016 by 7.7%.

In the 2017 government budget, deficit indicator is planned to be no higher than 2.7 percent of GDP. The public debt is projected in the budget at around $6.245 billion against the $5.849 billion recorded in 2016. --0---