Bulgarian Press Agency
The gross stock of Bulgaria's external debt stood at 9,898.5 million US dollars by October 31,2001, down 465.8 million dollars from the 10,364 million at December 31, 2000, the central bank announced on December 12. The gross external debt/GDP ratio was 73.3 per cent at end-October.
Of the total foreign debt, 9,257.6 million dollars or 93.5 per cent were long-term and 640.9 million dollars or 6.5 per cent were short-term.
The public debt was 8,574.8 million dollars (63.5 per cent of GDP) by the end of October, down 672 million dollars from at the end of last year.
The government debt amounted to 7,648.8 million dollars, which was 585.5 million less than by December 31, 2000, when it was 8,234.3 million dollars.
The state-guaranteed debt increased by 65.2 million dollars or 10.3 per cent to 697.6 million at October 31, 2001.
Also by that date, the private sector owed foreign creditors 1,323.8 million dollars or 9.8 per cent of GDP, a 206.1 million increase from the 1,117.6 million debt at the end of 2000.
Within this amount, the debt of private commercial banks decreased by 22.3 million dollars to 246.9 million dollars during the ten-month period. Privately owned enterprises, however, ran up an extra 228.4 million dollars foreign debt between January and October, reaching 1,076.9 million dollar debt.
Intracompany loans grew 153.8 million dollars to 522.7 million dollars at the end of October 2001, and loans from other creditors rose by 74.7 million dollars to 554.2 million dollars.
The 1,308.0 million dollars paid on Bulgaria's gross external debt in the ten-month period represented 9.7 per cent of GDP. Of these, 828.5 million were principal repayments and 479.4 million were interest payments. Compared to the like period of 2000, payments increased by 290.0 million dollars, mainly due to the larger amounts of principal repaid.
During the period under review, the public sector paid 1,050.7 million on its foreign debt: 592.6 million in principal and 458.1 million in interest, as against a total of 851.3 million
dollars in January-October 2000.
Payments totalled 909.2 million dollars on the government debt and 83.2 million on the state-guaranteed debt during the ten months.
The private sector debt payments aggregated 257.2 million dollars during the period, including 151.0 million from private commercial banks.
Of the 750.9 million dollars contracted in new loans and deposits in January-October 2001, 341.9 million or 45.5 per cent went to private borrowers, and 409.0 million or 54.5 to public
financial and non-financial corporations. Compared to the like period of 2000, the total of new loans and deposits receded by 128.1 million dollars.
Within the total of newly contracted loans and deposits in January-October 2001, 133.2 million dollars or 90.3 per cent were deposits. During the period under review, private
non-financial corporations borrowed 261.5 million dollars, of which 146.9 million or 56.2 per cent were intra-company loans, and 114.6 million or 43.8 per cent came from other creditors.
The figures do not include Bulgaria's obligations on commercial credits: advances and trade creditors. This information is being processed now, the central bank specified.
The GDP for 2001 is projected at 13,500 million dollars.
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