Gross external debt of Georgia increases to $18.6 billion
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Monday, March 30
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has published statistics on the gross external debt of Georgia. According to the NBG, the gross external debt of Georgia amounted to 18.6 billion USD (53.4 billion GEL) as of 31 of December 2019.
The debt accounted for 105.1 percent of the annual 2019 GDP, which was approx. 50.0 billion GEL. During the fourth quarter of 2019, the gross external debt of Georgia increased by 729.0 million USD. Out of that, 529.5 million USD increase was due to transactions, 141.6 million USD - due to exchange rate changes, 33.9 million USD - due to price changes and 23.9 million USD increase - due to other factors.
Public sector external debt amounted to 7.9 billion USD (22.6 billion GEL) or 44.4 percent of GDP. Out of which, debt of the general government amounted to 5.7 billion USD (16.4 billion GEL) or 32.3 percent of GDP.
As for the external liabilities of the National Bank of Georgia, they amounted to 449.7 million USD (1.3 billion GEL) or 2.5 percent of GDP. And, the bonds and loans of public enterprises were correspondingly 832.5 million USD (2.4 billion GEL) or 4.7 percent of GDP and 866.1 million USD (2.5 billion GEL) and 4.9 percent of GDP.
Banking sector external debt amounted to 4.5 billion USD (12.9 billion GEL) or 25.4 percent of GDP; Other sectors' external debt stood at 4.7 billion USD (13.4 billion GEL) or 26.3 percent of GDP; While 3.3 billion USD (9.5 billion GEL) or 18.6 percent of GDP was the intercompany lending. The 89.6 percent of the gross external debt of Georgia was denominated in foreign currency.
The net external debt of Georgia amounted to 10.7 billion USD (30.7 billion GEL or 60.5 percent of last four quarter GDP) as of 31 December 2019. Net public sector external debt was 4.3 billion USD (12.5 billion GEL) or 24.6 percent of GDP.
External liabilities of the National Bank of Georgia increased by 45.0 million USD, out of that, transactions led to increase of the debt by 39.2 million USD, and exchange rate changes lead to its increase by 5.9 million USD.
By the end of the year 2019, the external debt of the National Bank of Georgia amounted to 449.7 million USD, of which 199.3 million USD are Special Drawing Rights (SDR), which is an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is allocated to member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas. SDR has no maturity date, therefore there is no obligation to repay them as long as Georgia is a member of the IMF.
Gross external debt statistics are harmonized with Balance of Payments (BOP) statistics. They include both public sector (general government, public corporations and national bank) and private sector (banking and other sectors) external debt. External debt statistics are compiled according to the methodology provided by the IMF.
