The total external debt of Moldova at the end of the first quarter of 2021 amounted to $ 8 billion 253.89 million, having decreased from the beginning of the year by $ 103.84 million (-1.2%).
At the same time, compared to the same period last year ($ 7 billion 397.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2020), it grew by $ 856.29 million (+ 11.6%). Such preliminary data on the country's total debt was published by the National Bank in the Balance of Payments for the I quarter of 2021, noting that, in relation to GDP, the country's total debt at the end of March this year was amounted to 68%, decreasing by 2.1 percentage points, compared to the situation at the end of 2020. According to the NBM, the country's public debt and publicly guaranteed debt in the first quarter of 2021 decreased by $ 69.78 million (-2.9% ) - from $ 2 billion 430.27 million (at the end of 2020) to $ 2 billion 360.49 million (at the end of the first quarter of 2021), accounting for 28.6% of the total debt. Herewith, the private sector's unsecured debt decreased over the same period by $ 34.06 million (-0.6%) - from $ 5 billion 927.46 million to $ 5 billion 893.4 million, and amounted to 71.4% of the total the amount of debt. In the structure of the total external debt of Moldova by sector, at the end of the 1st quarter of 2021, the largest share of debt fell on non-financial societies - 40.9% of the total volume (by 0.1 percentage points more than at the end of 2020, and 0.4 pp higher compared to the end of March 2020). This is followed by: the public administration sector - 26.7% (-0.3 p.p. in relation to the end of 2020; + 4 p.p. in relation to the situation at the end of the 1st quarter of 2020), interbranch lending (including debts for natural gas imports) with a share of 23% (unchanged since the end of 2020; -2.3 p.p. by the end of March 2020), depository organizations - 4.1% (+0.3 p.p. from the end of 2020; +0.1 p.p., compared to the end of March 2020), other financial institutions - 3.2% (unchanged since the end of 2020; -0.6 p.p. by the end of March 2020), the National Bank - 1.5% (-0.2 p.p. from the end of 2020; + 0.8 p.p. by the end of March 2020), households - 0.6% (at the same level in both cases). The overall decrease in Moldova's external debt in the first quarter of 2021 was due to a decrease in the debt of the public administration sector by 2.4% - from $ 2 billion 255.08 million (at the end of 2020) to $ 2 billion 201.86 million (at the end of the first quarter of 2021), the debt of the National Bank on IMF loans - by 10.6% - from $ 141.11 million to $ 126.14 million, debts under the section "Other sectors" - by 0.8% - from $ 3 billion 722.61 million to $ 3 billion 693.74 million, debt under the section "Direct investments: interbranch lending" by 1.3% - from $ 1 billion 922.1 million to $ 1 billion 896.97 million. Meanwhile, the debt of commercial banks over the same period increased by 5.8% - from $ 316.83 million to $ 335.18 million. Long-term external debt at the end of the 1st quarter of 2021 amounted to $ 5 billion 874.98 million, a decrease of 1.6% compared to the end of 2020, when it amounted to $ 5 billion 972.68 million. At the same time, short-term external debt amounted to $ 2 billion 378.91 million, a decrease of 0.3% compared to the end of 2020 ($ 2 billion 385.05 million). Their share in the total volume of debt was 71.2% and 28.8%, respectively. // 30.06.2021 — InfoMarket
