Bulgaria’s Gross Foreign Debt Drops 13% Y/Y in December 2015

Bulgaria’s gross foreign debt totalled EUR 34.14 B at the end of 2015, down 13.2% from a year earlier, the central bank has announced.

Gross foreign debt was equivalent to 76.5% of the 2015 GDP forecast at the end of December, compared with 92.1% of GDP at the end of December 2014, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a monthly debt report.

Long-term debt fell 10.7% year-on-year in December 2015, reaching EUR 26.24 B, while short-term liabilities declined by 20.7% from end-2014 to EUR 7.90 B.

General government’s gross foreign debt decreased by 7.5% year-on year, reaching EUR 5.58 B at end-December 2015.

Bulgaria spent EUR 8.19 B to service its gross foreign debt last year, compared with EUR 5.99 spent B in January – December 2014, the BNB said.

Net foreign debt (gross foreign debt less gross foreign assets in debt instruments) totalled EUR 6.91 B at the end of December 2015, decreasing by 49.7% from end-2014. As a percentage of GDP, net foreign debt was equivalent to 15.5% at the end of December 2015, down 16.7 percentage points from a year earlier.

The BNB attributed the decline in net foreign debt to the decrease in gross debt by 13.2% and an increase in gross external assets by EUR 1.63 B, or 6.4%.