Bulgarian Telegraph Agency

The government external debt totalled 8,593.2 million dollars in end-November, up by 161.1 million dollars from October, according to figures posted by the Finance Ministry on the Internet.

The external debt dropped by 377.2 million dollars from the beginning of the year. The government debt is 8,103.3 million dollars and the government guaranteed debt is 489.9 million dollars.

New external financing of 219.6 million dollars was received in November, of which 217.3 million dollars from a five-year Eurobond issue.

Debt payments in November totalled 42.6 million dollars, breaking down as follows: 30.5 million dollars in principal repayments and 12.1 million dollars in interest payments. The principal repayments included 19.6 million dollars to the IMF, which was also the recipient of most interest payments.

Bulgaria received 536.6 million dollars in loans in January-November, of which 78.1 million dollars in instalments of government guaranteed loans. Debt service payments amounted to 1,057 million dollars, of which 460.7 million dollars in interest payments. The largest amounts were paid on Brady bonds and loans from the IMF and the Paris Club of official creditors.

Net foreign financing stood at minus 59.7 million dollars in end-November. State guaranteed loans stood at 8.8 million dollars.

The Eurobond issue was the main determinant of debt structure in November. Since the bonds are denominated in euros, the proportion of debt in European currencies rose over 2 percentage points to 18.1 per cent. The dollar-denominated debt dropped to 65.5 per cent, and the proportion of debt denominated in other currencies fell to 16.4 per cent.

The fixed interest coupon of the Eurobonds pushed up the proportion of fixed-interest debt by over 2 per cent to 29.1 per cent. The Eurobonds' five-year maturity reduced the average residual term to maturity to 12 years.

Brady bonds account for 55.4 per cent of the debt, down 1 per cent from October.

The debt to the IMF dropped to 12.4 per cent. The debt also includes 9.8 per cent to the World Bank, 4.8 per cent to the EU, and 4.5 per cent to the Paris Club. Government investment loans accounted for 2.4 per cent, and government guaranteed loans were 5.7 per cent of the total.

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