Ionita: Moldova’s External Debt Over $9 Billion in 2022

Thus, according to preliminary data of the National Bank of Moldova, the debt grew by 8 percent during 2022. Of this amount, just over $3 billion is the debt of the government, National Bank of Moldova, local authorities and state enterprises, and the rest is the debt of private companies, economic expert Veaceslav Ionita told Radio Moldova, radiomoldova.md reports. In 2022, Moldova’s foreign debt exceeded $9 billion, of which about $3.2 billion is the debt of the government, National Bank of Moldova, local authorities and state-owned enterprises. Over the last year, it increased by only $700 million, which is a positive trend, said economic expert Veaceslav Ionita. “The current government inherited a huge domestic debt, and the interest it pays on domestic debt is five to seven times higher than the interest on foreign loans. This year, the government will have to pay about 3 billion lei in interest only on domestic debt. In order to cut budget expenditures, the government did not borrow at all for the first time in 2022. That is, it did not increase domestic borrowing, but focused on external borrowing. In fact, increasing the external debt of the government is aimed at reducing budget expenditures,” Ionita said. At the same time, according to the economic expert, most of the external debt of our country accounts for private companies. Thus, we are not talking directly about citizens, but more about companies that borrowed abroad. According to data published by the National Bank of Moldova, long-term debt accounts for the biggest share in the gross external debt balance, i.e. over 72%, with its value increasing by 9.3% compared to the end of 2021. Short-term external debt was up by 4.7 percent at the end of last year, or 27.6 percent of the total.