Statistical Committee does not confirm Armenia’s PM’s claim about Ardshinbank’s bonds, offers to apply to CB for complete information

On January 23 Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Facebook that Ardshinbank has issued an unprecedented volume of Eurobonds amounting to $300 million with unprecedented low 6,5% rate. The demand for the issued Eurobonds was over $200 million and the acquired investors were almost 70.

The Prime Minister also stated that it is direct foreign investment made in Armenia’s economy and described it as bright expression of economic revolution.

Aysor.am applied to Armenia’s Statistical Committee to understand how the issued Eurobonds may be considered direct foreign investment and with what statistical principle it is being formulated as foreign investment.

In response, Statistical Committee’s service reported that the statistics of the foreign investments is conducted in accordance with international statistical criteria.

In accordance with the manual adopted by the IMF the private foreign investments are divided into 4 functional groups – direct, portfolio, other investments and financial derivatives.

The Eurobonds mentioned in the text correspond to portfolio investments (portfolio investments are investments in the form of a group (portfolio) of assets, including transactions in equity, securities, such as common stock, and debt securities, such as banknotes, bonds, and debentures).

Their calculation, as part of financial organizations, is being implemented by the Central Bank. Consequently, it will be possible to understand the final classification after presentation of corresponding report by the respondent (in this case Ardshinbank) to Armenia’s CB and after the latter works out the data.

The committee offered Aysor.am to apply to Armenia’s Central Bank for getting more complete information.