17:00, 12 June 2009

Russia gave a 500-million credit to Armenia

As reported by the press service of the Ministry of Finance of Armenia, on June 11, Russian credit of 500 million US dollars was transferred to Armenia, and the credit agreement has already come into force.

The agreement on granting by Russia of a credit to support Armenian economy in the conditions of the global financial crisis was signed on May 20. The interest rate is privileged - about 4 percent per annum, as reported by the IA "News-Armenia".

According to Sergey Aleksashenko, former First Deputy Chair of the Central Bank of Russia, the terms of the credit are very favourable for Armenia. "With account of the grace period of 5 years, Armenia will have to pay back a little more that 50 million US dollars per year - quite a tolerable sum," the financial boss noted.

It became also known on June 11 that the World Bank announced a start of a new programme of strategic partnership with Armenia. The programme will make "the basis for the Bank to render assistance to Armenia in 2009-2012," the ITAR-TASS reports.