Tajikistan’s foreign debt grew by nearly $80 million in 2016

Almaty. January 27. Silkroadnews – Tajikistan’s foreign debt grew by nearly $80 million in 2016, Tajik Telegraph Agency (TajikTA) reports.

“Amount of foreign debt of Tajikistan grew by nearly $79.9 million throughout last year”, Deputy Finance Minister of Tajikistan Jamshed Karimzod said and noted that at the beginning of this year the total foreign debt amounted to $2.3 billion, which is 32.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.

“The external debt service made $158 million in 2016, including $33 million for interest payments”, the deputy minister added.

He also emphasized, this year it is planned to attract international loans amounting more than 1.7 billion somoni (more than $215 million).

About 1.1 billion somoni (about $ 140 million) has been allocated for servicing the principal amount of the external debt.

The major creditor of Tajikistan at the moment is China, debt to which makes more than a half of the total amount of external debt.

Among the other large creditors of Tajikistan there are the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank.