Ministry Reports $1.8b Debt Serviced Last Year

Nov 13 , 2021

The federal government serviced 1.8 billion dollars worth of external debts over the last fiscal year, according to a report from the Ministry of Finance. Of the amount, 1.3 billion dollars went to cover principal payments while the rest was allocated to interest and commission fees. Last year's external debt service payments were lower than those of the preceding four years, especially the government's external debt service payment (excluding SOEs), which is lower than the previous two years. This is mainly attributed to the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which is an initiative under the World Bank that has helped the government restructure some of its debt. Since its commencement in May 2020, the initiative has provided five billion dollars of relief to more than 40 countries.