Georgia faces $15 billion foreign debt, says NBG

Georgia is borrowing more money off foreign lenders and the country currently has a foreign debt of $15 billion USD, latest figures reveal.

The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) revealed the country’s gross external debt increased by $357 million during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2015. NBG said from that, an increase of $441.1 million was due to transactions.

The data showed Georgia’s gross external debt accounted for 107 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

State sector external debt

NBG revealed the state sector external debt amounted to $6 billion or 43.3 percent of GDP. From this the debt of the general Government was $4.4 billion or 31.5 percent of GDP.

Banking sector external debt

The external debt of Georgia’s banking sector reached $2.9 billion or 21.1 percent of GDP.

NBG said the external debt of other sectors stood at $4.4 billion or 31.8 percent of GDP, while $3 billion or 21.5 percent of GDP was from inter-company lending.

The majority (94.7 percent) of Georgia’s gross external debt was denominated in foreign currencies.

NBG said the net external debt of Georgia was 9.4 billion or 67.3 percent of GDP, as of December 31, 2015. The net public sector external debt was $3.5 billion or 25 percent of GDP, said the bank.

NBG explained the gross external debt statistics were harmonised with balance of payments and included external debt of the public sector (general Government, public corporations and the national bank) and the private sector (banking and other sectors).