DUSHANBE, May 27, Asia-Plus — 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) expected by the end of this year, Temourali Afghonov, the head of the department for management of state debt and financial assets within the Ministry of Finance (MoF), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
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.
In the meantime, by the end of last year, the country’s external debt had amounted to $1.1199 billion or 30 percent of GDP that had amounted to $3.712 billion.
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.
