TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia’s foreign debt has increased by USD 128.9 million since fourth quarter of 2011 and is now USD 11.4 billion.

The National Bank today published data over the country’s foreign debt for first quarter in 2012. USD 3.8 billion of the total amount is public sector debt, which is 33 percent of the total debt; USD 783.1 million is the National Bank’s debt, USD 2.1 billion – the bank sector, USD 2.6 billion – inter-company lending and USD 2.1 billion – other sectors.

“Gross foreign debt to GDP ratio for the last four quarters (from Q2 2011 to Q1 2012) amounted to 76.7 percent,” the National Bank informs.

The increase for the first quarter in 2012 is caused by transactional, price, exchange rate and other changes, which led to an increase in gross foreign debt by 49.0 million USD, 16.2 million USD, 60.2 million USD and 3.5 million USD, respectively.

Public sector debt has increased by 114.4 million USD. Public debt to GDP ratio for the last four quarters amounted to 25.6 percent.

The National Bank’s external liabilities decreased by 31.9 million USD. The bank sector’s external liabilities fell by USD 35.7 million. Other sectors’ external liabilities increased by 43.3 million USD.

“51.5 percent of the increase in foreign liabilities was observed in loans denominated in foreign currency, 66.4 million USD, and 48.5 percent in loans dominated in national currency, which equals to 62.5 million USD.”

The trend over the last years is that Georgia’s foreign debt has tripled in the period 2006-2010. In 2006 it was USD 3.8 billion, in 2010 USD 9.8 billion and in 2011 the total foreign debt was USD 11.1 billion.