DUSHANBE, July 26, 2008, Asia-Plus — To date, Tajikistan’s foreign debt has amounted to $1.2 billion, Finance Minister, Safarali Najmuddinov, announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on July 25.
According to him, there are no delays in paying foreign debts and loan interest and “Tajikistan is able to service loan funds in the time fixed within the framework of existing agreements.”
The minister noted that funds borrowed over the past two years had gone to financing, first of all, development of energy sector, provision of food security, construction of roads and partially supporting social sector, including education and health care.
We will recall that at a Dushanbe press conference, the first Deputy Finance Minister, Sherali Safarov, announced on April 23 that as of April 1, 2008, Tajikistan’s foreign debt amounted to 1.223 billion US dollars.
In an interview with Asia-Plus, Temourali Afghonov, the head of the department for management of state debt and financial assets within the Ministry of Finance (MoF), revealed on May 28 that Tajikistan’s external debt may rise 40 percent in the year to December 31, 2008, reaching some $1.568 billion or 35 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to him, GDP is expected to stand at $4.8 billion by the end of this year, which is 20 percent more than last year’s indices.
He added that long-term preferential loans from international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the Asian and Islamic development banks, as well as the Kuwaiti and Saudi funds and China’s Exim Bank form the bulk of Tajikistan”s debt. Besides, considerable of Tajikistan’s external debt is also bilateral debts to the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Turkey, the United States, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The country now owes 63.6 million US dollars to Uzbekistan, 15 million US dollars to Russia and $15.3 million US dollars to the United States, Afghonov said.
