Ending with the last day of last year, the external debt of BiH amounts to 8.5 billion BAM, as confirmed by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.
This amount includes loans which bears the responsibilities of BiH (8.3 billion BAM), and which were allocated to the entities and institutions BiH, as well as loans that were directly arranged by entities (145 million BAM) and that are direct holders of obligations under this loans.
At this point, BiH owes far most money to the World Bank, over 2.8 billion BAM, while debts to other international financial institutions are extremely large as well.
BiH owes 1.7 billion BAM to European Investment Bank (EIB), and 1 billion BAM to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“If we look at the division of creditors on multilateral and bilateral, as of the 31st of December 2016, the share of multilateral creditors amounted to 78.44 %, while the bilateral relations refers to 21.56 % of the state foreign debt,” said Natasa Krsman, spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.
When it comes to bilaterals, BiH owes over 700 million BAM to the Paris Club creditors. On the list of countries to whose banks and funds BiH owes money are: South Korea, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Kuwait, Poland, Serbia, and Belgium.
Compared with other countries, and taking into account the amount of public debt in relation to GDP, BiH is now less indebted than Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania, and more indebted than Kosovo and Macedonia.
“Taking into account the debt criterion of Agreement made in Maastricht, after which was determined the upper limit of the total public debt in relation to GDP of up to 60 %, the public debt of BiH remains within the Maastricht criteria,” concluded Krsman.
(Source: A.Ibrahimovic/fokus.ba)
