The public debt of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on June 30ththis year reached almost 13 billion marks. The figures are worrying and show that the state, cantons, municipalities, entities, and most of all the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, are in debt. This is stated in the data of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH, which is in the possession of the Anadolu Agency (AA).
“The state of public indebtedness of BiH on June 30th, 2021 amounts to 12.822.72 million BAM, of which the external debt is 9.316.11 million BAM or 72.65%, while the internal debt is 3.506.61 million BAM or 27.35% of the total public indebtedness. Compared to December 31st last year, public debt increased by 629.74 million BAM or 5.16%, with external debt increasing by 617.85 million BAM or 7.10%, and domestic debt by 0.34% or 11.89 million BAM, “ it is stated in the data of the Ministry of Finance of BiH.
What is certain is that according to the data of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH, RS owes twice as much as the Federation of BiH (FBiH) per capita.
According to the data available to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH, the internal debt of BiH on June 30th amounted to 3.506.61 million BAM and increased by 11.89 million BAM or 0.34% compared to the situation on December 31st last year. In the total amount of internal indebtedness on June 30th this year, the FBiH participates with 33.90% and owes 1.188.54 million BAM, RS with 66.06% which has a debt of 2.316.58 million BAM, and the Brcko District of BiH with 0.04%, or 1.39 million BAM.
As for the external debt of BiH as of June 30th, it amounted to 9.316.11 million BAM, and it included the external state debt in the amount of 8.279.50 million BAM, which was allocated to the FBiH in the amount of 5.131.34 million BAM, RS amounts to 4.071.95 million BAM, Brcko District of BiH owes 48.19 million BAM, and institutions of the state of BiH 64.63 million BAM.
The World Bank – IDA and IBRD have the largest share in the external debt of BiH a with 29.11%, European Investment Bank with 21.84%, Eurobonds of RS with 9.83%, International Monetary Fund with 9.74%, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with 7.09%, Paris Club with 5.61%, which represents 83.22% of the total external debt.
The external debt service of BiH in the first half of 2021 amounted to 402.48 million BAM, of which 337.06 million BAM or 83.75% related to the principal and 65.42 million BAM or 16.25% to interest. In the total amount of external debt service of BiH, the FBiH participates with 65.70%, RS with 32.50%, while the institutions of BiH and the Brcko District of BiH participate with 0.92% and 0.88%, respectively. The share of the public debt of BiH in the gross domestic product (GDP) is 36.01%.
In the total balance of external indebtedness as of June 30th this year, based on new loans, 53.69% refers to loans aimed at the implementation of infrastructure projects, 34.17% to loans intended for the public sector, while 12.14% were engaged in economic activities.
