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Government set to refinance almost half of external public debt in 2013, finance minister says

 

The government plans to refinance almost half of the external public debt in 2013 and ensure that next year’s payments on the debt are lower than this year, Finance Minister Andrey Kharkavets said Wednesday, speaking at a meeting of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Budget, Finance and Tax Policy.

Mr. Kharkavets noted that the country would enter a period of peak payments on the external public debt the following year, with the total volume of payments to double in 2013 to $3.1 billion.

Owing to this, the government has set itself the task to refinance a certain part of the debt package, the minister said, noting that the government would work to receive $900 million in two loan tranches from the Anti-crisis Fund of the Eurasian Economy Community (EurAsEC) and issue bonds on international capital markets in 2013.

Mr. Kharkavets assured the parliamentary committee that Belarus would be in a “stable position” in 2013 in terms of economic security. “The external public debt will amount to 21.1 percent of GDP, whereas the established limit is 25 percent,” he said. “The domestic public debt will be three percent, with the established limit being 20 percent, and payments to service the public debt will amount to 7.8 percent of the national budget revenues, with the limit being 10 percent.”

According to the finance ministry, Belarus’ external public debt grew by $211.7 million in the first seven months of 2012 to $12 billion as of August 1, with the established limit being $14.3 billion.

The debt decreased by about $100 million in July as Belarus made the second payment of SDR64.7 million ($97.4 million) to repay the principal amount of the International Monetary Fund’s stand-by loan.

The country’s domestic public debt decreased by 130.4 billion rubels in the first seven months of the year to 17.7 trillion rubels.

Belarus’ overall public debt increased by 436 billion rubels, or 0.4 percent, to 116.8 trillion rubels ($13.9 billion). //BelaPAN