Georgia's Foreign Debt Increases

According to the National Bank of Georgia, the country's total external debt amounted to 17.8 billion US dollars (48.0 billion GEL) as of 31 March 2019, which is 110.1% of the last four quarters of the GDP.

In the first quarter of 2019, Georgia's gross external debt increased by $10.2 million. Of this, due to operational changes, foreign debt was  5.6 million, due to changes in price $50.2 million and due to other changes it increased by $23.6 million. At the same time, due to the debt change, debt was decreased by $69.1 million .

The state external debt amounted to $7.4 billion (20.0 billion GEL), accounting for 45.9% of GDP, from which the debt of governmental sector is $5.4 billion (14.4 billion GEL, 33.1% of GDP). The National Bank's commitments amounted ot $376.4 million (1.0 billion GEL, 2.3% of GDP) and state enterprise bonds and loans, respectively, amounted to $810.3 million (2.2 billion GEL, 5.0% of GDP) and $886.2 million (2.4 billion GEL, 5.5% of GDP).

The external debt of the banking sector amounted to  $4.2 billion (11.4 billion GEL, 26.2% of GDP), external debt of other sectors $5.4 billion (14.7 billion GEL, 33.6% of GDP) and intercompany debt $2.4 billion (6.5 billion GEL, 14.9% of GDP). 89.7% of the total external debt is denominated by foreign currencies.

Georgia's net external debt amounted to $10.4 billion (28.1 billion GEL) as of March 31, 2019, accounting for 64.4% of GDP in the last four quarters. Of this, the net foreign debt of the state sector is $3.9 billion (10.6 billion GEL), which is 24.2% of the GDP.

In the first quarter of 2019, the external debt of the National Bank of Georgia increased by $7.2 million. Due to operational changes, foreign liabilities of the National Bank increased by $8.0 million, while due to the exchange rate, saw debt reduced by $0.8 million. At the end of the first quarter of 2019, the total liabilities of the National Bank constituted $376.4 million.  Of this, $200.2 million is a special right of assigning debt (NSU) which does not have a term of repayment and practically no obligation to pay for it will come until Georgia is a member of the International Monetary Fund.

Source: National Bank of Georgia

By Mariam Merabishvili