Solydweb

 

Servicing the nation’s external debt gulped $1.66bn in one year, from July 2018 to June 2019, an analysis of data obtained from the Debt Management Office has shown.

Our correspondent reports that within the one-year period, the country’s external debt rose from $21.59bn to $27.16bn.


This means that the external indebtedness of the country rose by $5.57bn within the one-year period. This shows an increase of 25.8 per cent.

A breakdown of the debt servicing expenditure shows that the country spent $194.44m in the third quarter of 2018.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, a total of $849.97m was spent on external debt servicing.

In the first quarter of this year, a total of $367.26m was spent on external debt servicing while in the second quarter, a total of $252.3m was spent on it.

The external debt stock as of September 2018 stood at $21.59bn. It rose to $25.27bn as of December 2018.

By March 2019, it moved marginally to $25.61 and moved more significantly to $27.16 in June 2019.

Both the Federal Government and state governments have been ramping on up foreign debts in recent times in a bid to cut down on domestic debt servicing.

Although interests on foreign loans are considered low compared to local loans, the increase in foreign debt commitment has also resulted in increasing foreign debt commitment.