30 Jun 2022 21:42

Kyrgyzstan has to repay $600 mln in foreign debt in 2 years - president

BISHKEK. June 30 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan has to repay $600 million in foreign debt within the next two years, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said.

"We have a big problem: peak payments on the country's foreign debt and finding sources of financing. This big problem has coincided with my presidential term. We have to pay 23 billion som [$287.5 million] on our foreign debt this year and about 25 billion som [$312.5 million] next year," Japarov said at a parliamentary session on Thursday.

Within the next ten years, Kyrgyzstan will have to repay loans it has borrowed over the past 30 years, he said.

"If we don't pay, as is well known, the country's independence will be endangered," Japarov said.

According to the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry, the country's state debt as of the end of February 2022 amounted to $5.1 billion, including $817.3 million in domestic and $4.3 billion in foreign debt. About 42% of all of its foreign debt, or $1.8 billion, Kyrgyzstan owes to China's Export-Import Bank.