THE WAR IS BRINGING ARMENIA TO INSOLVENCY

If the war is profitable for the arms producers, then the participants of hostilities are usually threatened with ruin. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is no exception. The colossal costs that both of the warring parties are forced to bear, coupled with human and material losses, can ruin even stable economy. However, when it comes to the economy of Armenia, which is already mired in loans, the situation is even more critical.

According to independent experts, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia have already lost more than 250 tanks, air defense systems, hundreds of trucks and artillery crews during the conflict. The destruction of the command posts and ammunition depots also caused significant damage to the military force.

Armenia has already missed about $ 2 billion.

Now the Armenian leadership is literally pushed into the corner - how to repay the loans? After all, neither obtaining the new loans, nor trying to launch a printing press, accelerating the depreciation of the national currency, will solve the problem.

Already in July 2020, the volume of Armenia's public debt reached a record amount of $ 8 billion. World rating agencies downgraded the country's long-term rating, and Fitch Agency predicted a state default by the end of this year.

Experts suggest that the budget deficit could be about $ 1 billion.

At the same time, the country is unlikely to be able to get decent loans from abroad, since there is a war going on, and the background for it is a pandemic - the domestic economy still cannot recover from the restrictions imposed by the state.

Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan, which also suffers significant losses, has external resources to maintain its economic infrastructure. Azerbaijan's foreign exchange reserves have shown steady growth this year, reaching more than $ 50 billion by the middle of the year.

Experts note that it is also not worth hoping for help from Russia to the Armenian leadership, since the Russian authorities do not sympathize with the pro-Western orientations of Yerevan, outwardly maintaining neutrality. The criminal cases initiated in Armenia against the subsidiaries of the Russian Railways and Gazprom companies also do not contribute to the positive attitude.