DUSHANBE, April 25, 2011, Asia-Plus — Minister of Finance Safarali Najmiddinov has stated that Tajikistan will fulfill all its loan obligations.
In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Najmiddinov revealed on April 25 that Tajikistan’s foreign debt has grown some 45 million U.S. dollars over the first three months of this year, reaching 1.987 billion U.S. dollars. The foreign debt now amounts to 31.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), he said.
Long-term preferential loans from international financial institutions reportedly form the bulk of the country’s external debt.
China, which accounts for 35 percent of Tajikistan’s external debt, is the country’s largest creditor. 739 million U.S. dollars provided by China’s Exim bank are repayable in 20 years, the minister noted.
“384.3 million U.S. dollars provided by the World Bank at annual 0.75 percent interest are repayable in 2047 and 340.52 million U.S. dollars provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at annual 1.5 percent interest are repayable in 2035,” said Najmiddinov, “We will fulfill our all loan obligations and rumors that international financial institutions allegedly refuse to provide loans to Tajikistan are absolutely baseless, because we have agreements on medium-term partnership with all large financial institutions.”
Grants are of priority to the government and loans for Tajikistan must bear a reasonable rate of interest – not higher than 2 percent per year, the minister stressed.
According to him, the government has signed three grant agreements for a total amount of 762 million somoni in the first quarter of this year. “We also plan to sign five more financial documents for a total amount of 377 million somoni in the near future; 165 million somoni will be provided in a form of grants,” Najmiddinov added.
According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Tajikistan’s external debt includes the government’s direct debt estimated at 1.8197 billion U.S. dollars, the debt of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) estimated at 123.1 million U.S. dollars, borrowings in an amount of 23.8 million U.S. dollars guaranteed by the government and 20.2 million U.S. dollars of debts without government guarantee.
The national budget for 2011 reportedly earmarks 190.6 million somoni (equivalent to US$39.7 million) for repayment of the principal and 159 million somoni (US$33.1 million) for repayment of the debt interest.
