Kazakhstan's gross external debt rises 4% in H1
ALMATY. Oct 21 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's gross external debt rose $6.7 to $160.4 billion at the end of the first half of 2016, or a 4% increase in the first six months of the year, the National Bank said.
In the external debt structure the public sector debt accounted for 8.5% ($ 13.6 billion), banks had 4.8% of the external debt ($ 7.7 billion), other sectors of the economy not related to direct investments had 33.5% ($53.8 billion), and intercompany debts made up the remaining 53.2% ($ 85.4 billion), according to the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
In the first half of 2016 the Kazakh government's external debt increased $1.4 billion mainly due to a loan from the World Bank ($1 billion) used to improve competitiveness of the economy.
The ratio of the external debt to Kazakhstan's GDP was 107% compared with 83.4% as of December 31, 2015. Public sector external debt made up 9.1% of GDP against 6.6% at the end of 2015.
