Kazakhstan, Astana, June 6 / Trend, D. Mukhtarov /
At the beginning of 2013, Kazakhstan's gross external debt, amounted to $ 137 billion, MP Yekaterina Nikitinskaya said at the session of the Majilis (lower chamber) of the parliament of Kazakhstan.
According to her, Kazakhstan holds the first place among the CIS countries in terms of the size of the external debt per capita.
"This figure is 1540 dollars per citizen of Kazakhstan, while every Russian citizen owes the world capital $ 100, each the Belarusian citizen - $ 300, each Ukrainian - $ 900," the deputy said.
According to the information of the Accounts Committee of Kazakhstan, to date, the gross external debt of the country is 68.3 percent of GDP.
"New loans will lead us to exceed the critical limit of 80 per cent of the GDP," Nikitinskaya said.
She reminded that the country still earns mainly from the sale of energy and metals. The economy is confidently kept afloat while the prices of the exported minerals are high enough, the deputy said.
"The government has not been able to reduce our dependence even on the imports of the food products; the measures for the diversification of the economy are not also yet effective. Attracting foreign loans on an ever increasing scales can lead, as it has happened with a number of countries in the Asian region, to economic and political dependence on the creditor countries," Nikitinskaya said.
Nikitinskaya proposed to move "to the practice of indicator-based assessment of the situation in the annual plans and reports of the government budget, as well as to set an upper limit for the public and quasi-public debt in the aggregate amount of 60 percent of GDP.