Belarus leads in external debt growth in Russia-lead economic union

October 25, BPN. Belarus’ foreign debt grew by 4.3 percent year on year to $44.98 billion on July 1, the Eurasian Economic Commission reported.

The average debt of other Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries fell by 0.4 percent in this period – Russia’s by 0.5 percent, Armenia’s by 0.9 percent, and Kazakhstan’s by 1.7 percent. Only Kyrgyzstan reported a rise of 2.7 percent.

In July, Belarusian finance ministry stopped disclosing data on public debt.

On October 18, the World Bank placed all International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loans to Belarus into non-performing status citing overdue payments. As of October 14, Belarus owed the World Bank the equivalent of $68.43 million in overdue payments. Minsk owes a total of $967 million to the IBRD, which amounts to 0.42 percent of IBRD’s total outstanding loans.