State budget 2021: gov’t to increase external debt by 5.3 bln GEL in 2021

The Georgian government is going to borrow 5.3 bln GEL from multilateral and bilateral donors and partners in external debt in 2021, says the final version of the state budget for 2021.

However, increased domestic debt is not planned.

3.1 billion GEL will be spent on servicing external state debt, while 570 million GEL will be spent on servicing domestic state debt.

Based on the final version of the state budget for 2021, government debt is forecasted at 60.1 per cent of GDP by the end of 2021.

By the end of 2021 the state debt is forecasted to stand at 33.68 bln GEL, consisting of external debt of 27.73 bln GEL and domestic debt of 5.95 bln GEL.

The foreign debt portfolio of the government is preferential and consists mainly of long-term loans with the weighted average interest rate on the government's external debt is 1.42 per cent.

Next year Georgia will have a state budget of 18 billion GEL to use for state agencies, projects, and also to alleviate sectors of the economy affected by Covid-19. Out of the 18 billion GEL state budget, about 13 billion GEL is spent on ministries.

The budget will be distributed amongst ministries as follows:

• Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs –   5.56 billion GEL
• Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure – 2.42 billion GEL   
• Ministry of Education, Science, culture and sport – 1.8 billion GEL
• Ministry of Defense – 900 million GEL
• Ministry of Internal Affairs –   790 million GEL
• Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development - 469.8 million GEL
• Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture - 463.6 million GEL
• Ministry of Justice – 246.5 million GEL
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 174.2 million GEL
• Ministry of Finance – 88.9 million GEL

Meanwhile, the budget of the State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia amounted to 2.55 mln GEL.