DUSHANBE, December 14, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s external debt has reached 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, Minister of Finance, Safarali Najmiddinov, noted on December 14.
On the debt-to-GDP ratio, which is one of indicators of the health of an economy, Najmiddinov noted that this year’s Tajikistan public debt-to-GDP ratio was 33 percent.
He noted that the practice of foreign borrowings was in compliance with the national external debt management strategy.
The minister noted that Tajikistan discontinued the practice of attracting commercial loans and would attract only preferential loans.
“Many projects have been implemented in the country due to grants,” Najmiddinov noted.
The budget for 2012 has reportedly earmarked 640 million somoni (equivalent to 132.2 million U.S. dollars) for the external debt service.
The external debt includes the government’s direct debt, the debt of the National Bank of Tajikistan, borrowings guaranteed by the government and debts without government guarantee, the minister said.
Long-term preferential loans from international financial institutions reportedly form the bulk of the country’s external debt and the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) remains Tajikistan’s main creditor – 862 million U.S. dollars.
We will recall that as of July 1, 2012, Tajikistan’s external debt amounted to 2.123 billion U.S. dollars. As of July 1, 2012, the external debt was estimated at 29.7 percent of GDP. Over the first six months of this year, the national budget has earmarked 32.27 million U.S. dollars for repayment of the principal debt and 15.27 million U.S. dollars for repayment of the debt interests.
