ARF: The Armenian authorities` new geopolitical adventure will lead to serious economic consequences

ArmInfo. The Armenian authorities' new geopolitical adventure will lead to serious economic consequences. This is the view of Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia from the opposition Armenia faction and a member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun party, commenting on the growth of the country's external public debt.

According to the parliamentarian, over the past two months (August and September 2026), Armenia's external debt has increased by $1 billion 174 million. The main purpose of the debt is to finance the state budget deficit. In reality, according to Saghatelyan, the public debt grows during the pre-election period to cover the deficit caused by state vote-buying.

"When borrowed funds grow faster than state budget revenues, they secretly serve to finance state vote-buying, so a significant portion of them is not allocated to infrastructure and investment programs. This will have its consequences, and against this backdrop, a new geopolitical adventure will have serious economic consequences," the opposition figure noted.

It should be noted that Armenia's public debt as of July 1, 2026, amounted to $14.543 billion, leading to an increase in the per capita debt burden, which reached $4.7 thousand. Moreover, this indicator has steadily increased compared to previous periods (by the beginning of 2025, the debt was over $12.8 billion). International financial institutions, including the World Bank, do not yet consider the country's current level of debt to be a critical threshold.