Georgia’s gross external debt amounted to $ 17.8 billion

TBILISI(BPI)-Georgia’s  gross external debt  amounted to $ 17.8 billion (GEL 48.0 billion) as of 31^th of March 2019. It accounted for 110.1 percent of the last four quarters’ GDP. During the first quarter of 2019 the gross external debt of Georgia increased by 10.2 million USD. Out of that 5.6 million USD increase was due to transactions, 50.2 million USD increase due to price changes and 23.6 million USD – due to other changes. Meanwhile exchange rate changes lead to its decrease by $ 69.1 million.

Public sector external debt amounted to 7.4 billion USD (20.0 billion GEL) or 45.9 percent of GDP. Out of which, debt of the general government amounted to 5.4 billion USD (14.4 billion GEL) or 33.1 percent of GDP. External liabilities of the National Bank of Georgia amounted to 376.4 million USD (1.0 billion GEL) or 2.3 percent of GDP. And, the bonds and loans of public enterprises were correspondingly 810.3 million USD (2.2 billion GEL) or 5.0 percent of GDP and 886.2 million USD (2.4 billion GEL) and 5.5 percent of GDP.

Banking sector external debt amounted to 4.2 billion USD (11.4 billion GEL) or 26.2 percent of GDP; Other sectors’ external debt stood at 5.4 billion USD (14.7 billion GEL) or 33.6 percent of GDP; While 2.4 billion USD (6.5 billion GEL) or 14.9 percent of GDP was the intercompany lending. The 89.7 percent of the gross external debt of Georgia was denominated in foreign currency.

The net external debt of Georgia amounted to 10.4 billion USD (28.1 billion GEL) or 64.4 percent of GDP as of 31 March 2019. Net public sector external debt was 3.9 billion USD (10.6 billion GEL) or 24.2 percent of GDP.

External liabilities of the National Bank of Georgia increased by 7.2 million USD, out of that, transactions led to increase of the debt by 8.0 million USD,  exchange rate changes contracted the debt by 0.8 million USD. By the end of the first quarter of 2019, the external debt of the National Bank of Georgia amounted to 376.4 million USD, of which 200.2 million USD are Special Drawing Rights (SDR)¹ which have no maturity date, therefore  there is no obligation to repay them as long as Georgia is a member of the IMF.

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