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At March 7 extraordinary sitting moderated by Gevorg Papoyan, the RA NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs in the first reading debated the draft law on ratifying the Letter-Agreement on the use of Stand-by Arrangement signed on 11 January and on 18 January, 2022 between the Republic of Armenia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) authored by the Government.

The RA Deputy Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan has noted that the three-year Stand-by Arrangement was approved for the Republic of Armenia in May 2019 by the IMF aimed at the economic fundamental and structural reforms.

Within the framework of the second revision of the program, as a result of negotiations with the IMF representatives, an agreement was reached to change the expediency of the program and the use of the accessible means under the Stand-by Arrangement for the financing of the social-economic events aimed at the mitigation of the new coronavirus pandemic consequences.

The RA Government applied to the IMF with the Letter of Intentions on November 19, 2021 for engaging the accessible means as budgetary assistance conditioned by the financing necessity of the state budget deficit.

The Letter-Agreement on the use of Stand-by Arrangement signed on 11 January and on 18 January, 2022 between the Republic of Armenia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) causes additional financial obligations for the RA state budget.

The contribution of the loans to be received by the letter-agreement is designed during the first quarter of 2022, and the loan will be directed to the financing of the RA state budget deficit for 2022. The ratification of the document is inter-connected with the RA Law on the RA State Budget for 2022.

The Letter-Agreement will enter into force after receiving the relevant document of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs on completing the inner-state procedures of the ratification or approval of corresponding to the law on RA International Treaties and after notifying to the IMF by the RA Ministry of Finance.

Highlighting the adoption of the draft law in his co-report, the Chair of the Standing Committee Gevorg Papoyan, called on his colleagues to vote for it.

The Committee members endorsed the draft law.