site.btaGross External Debt Increases by EUR 639.1 Million in December 2016 Y/Y - Central Bank Statistics

Gross External Debt Increases by EUR 639.1 Million in December 2016 Y/Y - Central Bank Statistics

Sofia, March 1 (BTA) - The gross external debt amounted to EUR 34,727 million (nearly 74 per cent of the GDP) at the end of December 2016, increasing by EUR 639.1 million from December 2015 when it stood at EUR 34,088 million, the National Bank of Bulgaria said.

General government's gross external debt totalled EUR 6,769 million (14.4 per cent of GDP) in end-December 2016. It rose by EUR 1,189 million from end-2015, mostly due to the nonresident-held securities from Bulgaria's bond issues on international capital markets in March 2016.

Banks' external debt totalled EUR 4,162 million, increasing by EUR 36.3 million compared to December 2015.

Gross external debt service payments totalled EUR 6,635 million in January - December 2016, down by EUR 1,776 million compared with the payments in January - December 2015 which stood at EUR 8,411 million.

As a percentage of GDP, the net external debt equated 6.1 per cent at end-December 2016, against 14.8 per cent at end-2015.