MOLDOVA’S EXTERNAL BRUT DEBT REACHED US$7.54 BILLION AS OF JANUARY 1

The Moldova’s external brut debt grew US$81 million over 2019, reported the National Bank of Moldova (NBM).

The dynamic of the external brut debt in 2019 looks as follows: in 1Q2019 the external debt was US$7.37 billion, in 2Q2019 - US$7.33 billion, in 3Q2019 - US$7.31 billion.

According to the NBM, the rate of Moldova’s external debt has sustainably been growing since 2019, except 2014 (when its index fell US$410 million against 2013) and 2015 (when the debt fell US$390 million). During all the rest of years the external debt demonstrated a sustainable growth trend: 2009 – US$4.47 billion; 2010 – US$4.81 billion; 2011 – US$5.33 billion; 2012 – US$6.00 billion; 2013 – US$6.87 billion; 2014 – US$6.46 billion; 2015 – US$6.07 billion; 2016 – US$6.19 billion; 2017 – US$6.97 billion; 2018 – US$7.46 billion; 2019 – US$7.54 billion.

If comparing the rate of the external brut debt as of December 31, 2019 with the country’s GDP – 210.10 billion lei, it turns out that the external debt accounted for 64% against the GDP.

However, the external brut debt rate takes into account not only the public debt of the state, but also that of the private sector, including the NBM credits from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Taking only the volume of the public external debt separately, it was US$1,898 million as of December 31, 2019, while a year earlier - US$1,924 million. These figures demonstrate that last year the state managed to lower the public external debt US$25 million.

According to the data about Moldova’s external brut debt, a 2020, the public external debt of the state against the 2019 GDP was 16.3%.