Belarusian foreign debt grows 20% in 2011
MINSK. March 7 (Interfax) - Belarus's total foreign debts stood at $34.028 billion, or 62.3% of GDP, as of January 1 this year, up 19.8% over the past year, a National Bank of Belarus report says.
Foreign debt grew 3.5% in the fourth quarter after decreasing 0.7% in Q3, increasing 4.7% in Q2 and 11.3% in Q1.
Per capita foreign debt as of January 1 was $3,595 versus $2,995.5 on the same date last year and $2,322.1 on January 1, 2010.
Short-term foreign debt increased 13.9% over last year to almost $14.450 billion (26.4% of GDP) and long-term debt 24.6% to $19.579 billion (35.8% of GDP).
Of the republic's foreign debts, the proportion of the non-financial sector of the economy amounted to $13.064 billion (up 31.8% over last year and 10.4% in H2), of which short-term debt amounted to $10.195 billion (up 28.8% over the year).
Foreign state debt reached $12.351 billion (22.6% of GDP), up 22.8% over the year. The entire volume of foreign state debt is long-term, with credits and loans amounting to $9.76 billion (up 18.2% over the year), debt securities to $2.02 billion (up 64.4%), and other debt obligations to $566 million (down 0.3%).
The National Bank of Belarus owed $1.530 billion - down 17.5% over last year and up 9.2% in H2.
Banks' foreign debts amounted to $6.077 billion as of January 1 this year, up 5.7% over 2011 and down 12.9% in H2. Of that, short-term debt came to $2.054 billion, decreasing 23.33% over the year and 32.8% in H2.
Companies owed direct investors $1 billion at the end of 2011, up 21.8%.
Spending on the servicing of gross foreign debt in 2011 totaled $6.321 billion (11.6% of GDP, or 13.5% of export volume). Servicing state foreign debt took $552.1 million - 3.3% of budget revenues.
Belarus's gold and forex reserves, as of January 1, 2012, covered 23.3% of gross foreign debt (17.7% on the same date in 2011), or 54.8% of short-term foreign debt (39.7%).
National Bank of Belarus figures indicate that last year the country's GDP amounted to $54.647 billion in dollar equivalent versus $55.087 billion for 2010.
Belarus's gross foreign debt grew 29.2% to $28.4 billion (51.6% of GDP) in 2010 after increasing 45.4% in 2009.