Moldovan government debt to increase to 99 billion lei compared to 77 billion a year ago

According to the data of the Ministry of Finance, the internal and external public debt increased in the first four months of this year by about 4.37 billion lei at face value. Therefore, as of April 30, 2023, the balance of government debt was 99.03 billion lei. For example, at the end of March 2023, the balance was 96.59 billion lei, and a year ago, on April 30, 2022, it was 77.17 billion lei. External public debt increased the most, by about 2.52 billion lei, reaching a mark of almost 62.69 billion lei. In dollar terms, external public debt has increased by ca. 340 million since the beginning of the year and stands at almost 3.48 billion, mainly due to the inflow of foreign funds. The Law on the State Budget predicts that by December 31, 2023, the internal public debt will not exceed 37.48 billion lei, and the external public debt will reach 85.02 billion lei (the equivalent of USD 4,141.3 million). At the same time, the domestic public debt at face value increased by 1.85 billion lei and amounted to more than 36.34 billion lei. According to the Ministry of Finance, the domestic public debt changed mainly due to an increase in the primary market government securities by 1,920.9 million lei at face value. The weighted average interest rate on government securities sold through auctions amounted during four months of 2023 to 12.27% (by maturity: 91 days – 12.80%, 182 days – 12.15%, 364 days – 11.96%, 2 years – 15.79%, 3 years – 13.07%), which is 0.28 p.p. lower than in 2022. It should be noted that, despite the increase, the share of government debt in GDP decreased to 32.1% compared to the level of 34.7% at the end of 2022. The data of the trading economic platform also show that in terms of the share of government debt in GDP, Moldova ranks 35th out of 44 European states. More precisely, it is in 8th place in the top 10 European countries with the smallest share of public debt in GDP. At the opposite pole are Greece, Italy, Portugal, France, Belgium, Cyprus and Montenegro, whose government debt exceeds 100% of GDP.