Public debt of Azerbaijan will exceed $10.3 bln by 2024 - Finance Ministry

BAKU. August 1 (Interfax) - The Finance Ministry of Azerbaijan predicts the country's public debt in 2023 will reach 17.536 billion manat, or $10.3 billion at the current exchange rate.

The Finance Ministry did not disclose the country's public debt at the end of 2022. As of June 30, 2023, Azerbaijan's public debt was estimated at 16.151 billion manat, or 14.5% of GDP projected for the current year.

The Ministry estimates that, as of January 1, 2024, foreign debt will reach $6.381 billion, or 10.847 billion manat. As of July 1, 2023, it was 11.181 billion manat ($6.577 billion), or 10% of GDP, the Finance Ministry told Interfax.

Domestic public debt by the end of 2023 will reach 6.689 billion manat. As of June 30, it stood at 4.97 billion manat, or 4.5% of GDP.

The structure of foreign debt at the end of 2023 will consist of 49% from loans raised for a period of up to five years, 42.6% for loans from 5-10 years, and 8.4% for loans of 10 or more years, the Finance Ministry said.

The Finance Ministry said that expenditures from the state budget for servicing the public debt in H1 2023 totaled 430.8 million manat, or 3.1% of budget expenditures for the current period. This consisted of 352.7 million manat for foreign debt, and 78.1 million manat for domestic.

The Finance Ministry attracted 724.1 million manat in the domestic market in H1 2023 by placing bonds, funds from which went to pay down foreign and domestic public debt.