Total public debt stands at US$1.65B – Midyear report

Aug 18, 2019 News

At the end of June, Guyana’s total public debt was US$1,657.8M, a 1.5 percent increase over the US$1,634M at last year’s half year report. This was iterated by Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, last week, as he presented the country’s mid-year report for 2019.

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan

76.9 percent of that total, or US$1,274M accounts for the external debt, while the domestic debt is US$383.8M or 23.1 percent. The external debt increased by three percent, from the previous report, and the domestic debt correspondingly declined by 3 percent.
The report says that the public debt is sustainable and faces a moderate risk of distress, primarily attributed to “Government’s commitment to meeting its financing needs and payment obligations at the lowest possible cost, over the medium-to-long term within prudent risk parameters.”
Government iterated that the stability of the country’s public debt from year to year could be attributed to the debt relief of US$50.7M granted by the Government of Kuwait under a Bilateral Debt Settlement agreement it signed in March, 2019. Of that debt, US$24.9M remains, which Government intends to repay through a combination of cash payments and a debt swap arrangement.
Had it not been for that relief, the growth of the public debt from the previous half year would have been 4.5 percent, and not 1.5 percent. Otherwise, several arrears have been accumulating at high interest rates. Government is actively engaging other bilateral non-Paris Club creditors in debt settlement negotiations.
In the first half of the year, the mid-year report states that public service debt payments increased by 17.3 percent, from US$44.3M in the first half of 2018, to US$52M. This was attributed to 96.9 percent increase in domestic debt service payments.
Government reported that the public debt service payments accounted for 9.4 percent of its revenues, as opposed to 8.5 percent in the previous half year. External debt service payments accounted for 81.2 percent of total public service debt payments. That is 7.7 percent drop from the same period in 2018.
It should be noted that Guyana’s public service debt of US$1,274M was US$1,251.9M at the previous half year. This is attributed to a 95.9 percent increase in debt to the World Bank – International Development Association, to US$78.4M; and a 3.5 percent hike in debt to the country’s largest creditor, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), from US$505.5M to US$532.2M.
At half year 2019, the multilateral debt share grew to 61.9 percent of the external public debt, from 58.4 percent at the previous half year, and the bilateral debt share fell to 35.4 percent, from 38.8 percent, mainly because of the Kuwait debt write-off.

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