Central Bank: External debt falls, public debt rises

Central Bank: External debt falls, public debt rises

Serbia's external debt i.e. the total debt of the state and private companies towards foreign creditors amounted to EUR 25.5 billion, while the public debt i.e. the total debt of the state and the public sector amounted to EUR 20.5 billion at the end of March.

The share of the external debt in GDP continued to decrease reaching 80 percent, while the share of the public debt in estimated GDP went up by 65.1 percent, the analysis reads.

As for the external debt, the banks continued the repayment trend, but the public sector has reduced its external debt mostly owing to the decrease of the debt of the central bank towards the International Monetary Fund. Only companies increased their indebtedness abroad during the first three months of 2014, the NBS said.

As the external debt reduced, all indicators of external solvency improved. The improvement of the indicator of the relation between the external debt and the export of goods and services is particularly important as it is often referred to as the most important indicator given that it is the basis of sustainable debt repayment, the central bank said on its website.

Aside from the indicators of external solvency, the indicators of external liquidity have improved compared to the past quarter, reads the analysis of the central bank.

The crucial improvement is that of the indicators showing the participation of the external debt disbursement in the export of goods and services which went down by four percent reaching 27.2 percent.

On the other hand, due to the state debt stemming from the issuance of long-term bonds in the domestic market, the public debt increased during the first quarter. The indicators of public debt sustainability have deteriorated, except the ones showing the relation between the public debt and export.

Moreover, the maturity dynamics led to deterioration of sustainability indicators after three quarters of improvement.

The indicator of the public debt disbursement in relation to the budget revenues has deteriorated the most, as it reached 39.1 percent in the first quarter, said the NBS website.