Over the first quarter of this year, Tajikistan’s external debt has decreased by nearly 20 million U.S. dollars and as of April 1, 2018 it amounted to 2.859.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan.
As of January 1, 218, Tajikistan’s external debt reportedly amounted to 2.879 billion.
The debt owed by the government amounts to some 2.7 billion U.S. dollars.
The government guaranteed debts reportedly amount to 32 million dollars and debts of state-run enterprises not secured through government guarantees amount to 31.5 million U.S. dollars.
The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) reportedly accounts for some 100 million in the structure of the country’s external debt. Tajik central bank now owes 87.3 million U.S. dollars to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 7 million U.S. dollars to China and 4.1 million U.S. dollars to the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of Tajikistan, China remains Tajikistan’s largest creditor. Tajikistan now reportedly owes more than 1.2 billion to the export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank).
Besides, Tajikistan now also owes 318 million U.S. dollars to the World Bank, 278 million U.S. dollars to the Asian Development Bank and 112 million U.S. dollars to the Islamic Development Bank.
At the beginning of this year, the country’s external debt-to-GDP ratio reached 40.3 percent, exceeding the debt ceiling. But Tajik authorities revised the medium-term debt strategy (MTDS) and relaxed the domestic fiscal rule on the debt ceiling by increasing it from the current 40 percent of GDP to 60 percent of GDP.
Despite unsettled debts, Tajikistan is going to borrow another nearly 850 million U.S. dollars within the coming three years under the national foreign-borrowing program projected for 2018-2020: 196.5 million U.S. dollars (USD) in 2018; 295.9 million USD in 2019; and 354.7 million USD in 2020.
The World Bank analysts note that the loans for public investment projects (particularly from China), the issuance of domestic debt to support the energy sector (TJS 530 million), and the issuance of a US$500 million Eurobond in September last year are the primary drivers of the rise in Tajikistan’s external debt.
