BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 16
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
The Law on the State Budget of Uzbekistan for 2020 has introduced a limit on external borrowings in 2020, Trend reports citing Uzbek media.
Section 16 of the Law for 2020 sets a limit on the total amount of newly signed agreements on attracting external borrowing on behalf of Uzbekistan (the government) or under the country's guarantee in the amount of $4 billion.
Moreover, the maximum amount of external borrowing for the implementation of targeted programs and repayable from the state budget was approved in the amount of $1.5 billion.
Government debt at the beginning of 2020 is projected at $21.3 billion (36 percent of GDP), of which external debt will be $15.3 billion (25.4 percent of GDP).
In terms of creditors, the volume of state external debt consists of $6.7 billion received from foreign countries, $7.7 billion from international financial institutions and $1 billion from investors.
As follows from the information of the key economic department, in order to maintain a moderate debt load, the main tasks of public debt management are:
- maintaining public debt at a level safe for macroeconomic stability;
- ensuring guaranteed timely and complete servicing of state internal and external debt;
- diversification of public debt and reducing the risks of increasing costs for its servicing;
- ensuring the effective and targeted use of loans attracted on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan or under state guarantees.
The analysis shows that the main foreign creditors of the country are China and Japan. The volume of state external debt of Uzbekistan projected on January 1, 2020 to China will be $3 billion, Japan - $1.8 billion. Russia's debt, according to the official forecast, will grow from $25 million in 2015 to $120.5 million.
Of the international financial institutions, the largest lender to Uzbekistan is the Asian Development Bank. According to the forecast, the volume of state external debt to ADB at the beginning of next year will amount to $3.9 billion (51 percent), to the World Bank - $2.8 billion (37 percent).
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