Kyrgyzstan could pay off its foreign debt by 2035 - president

BISHKEK. April 15 (Interfax) - If the current situation in Kyrgyzstan remains, the country's foreign debt would be paid off by 2035, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said on Saturday.

"Let us forget the foreign debt subject. Even if our foreign debt grows to $10-15 billion, we don't need to worry. The country's foreign debt was about $5 billion in 2020. It is the foreign debt accumulated in the past 30 years. We will pay off our entire foreign debt by 2035," Japarov said in an interview with the Kyrgyz news agency Kabar.

The period of the biggest payments coincided with the work time of his team, he said. Japarov also said he is confident that there will be no problems with payments and pointed out that the state of the economy has improved.

"We will take loans for payback projects in the future. It will not affect the republic's treasure and the people's pockets. As long as peace and stability prevail in the county, we will be able to pay it off easily," Japarov said.

According to the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry, Kyrgyzstan's state debt, both foreign and internal, stood at $6.2 billion in 2023. Multilateral loans make up over a half, 53.6%, of the internal debt totaling $2.5 billion. The country's debt in bilateral concessional loans is also over $2 billion, or 44%. Of them, Kyrgyzstan owes 36.7% of its foreign debt to the Export-Import Bank of China, it reached $1.7 billion in 2023.