News - Armenia to get €50M loan from OPEC

Armenia will receive a loan of €50 million from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Armenia's draft law on ratifying the Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development Policy Program loan agreement—for €50 million—with the OPEC Fund for International Development is being debated on at Tuesday’s special session of the National Assembly of Armenia. The objective of this program is to assist green, resilient, and inclusive development  in Armenia. It is aimed at mitigating the consequences of climate change, as well as improving the environmental management system and energy efficiency in the country. According to the Deputy Finance Minister of Armenia, Eduard Hakobyan, at first it was assumed that these funds will be allocated to closing the state budget deficit of Armenia. But since the budget was in surplus, a decision was made to earmark these loan funds to capital investments, such as the construction of schools, etc. "The loan is provided for 20 years; five of them—privileged," added Hakobyan. According to the estimates by the Ministry of Finance of Armenia, the actual interest rate of this loan is 5.6 percent.