PHNOM PENH, Sept 8 (NNN-AKP) – The Cambodian government had a total public debt stock of 9.7 billion U.S. dollars, as of June, 2022, according to the Cambodia Public Debt Statistical Bulletin, published yesterday.
The public external debt comprised 68 percent from bilateral developing partners (DPs) and 32 percent from multilateral DPs, said the bulletin, released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
“The public debt stock is covered by foreign currencies, of which 42 percent is USD, 20 percent is SDR (Special Drawing Rights), 13 percent is CNY, 10 percent is JPY, seven percent is EUR and the rest in other currencies,” the bulletin said.
During the Jan-Jun period this year, the government signed new concessional loans with the DPs in a total amount of 635.59 million dollars, it said.
“Overall, all the loans are highly concessional … and the purpose of these new signed loan is to finance public investment projects in the priority sectors that support long term sustainable economic growth and increase economic productivity,” the bulletin said.
According to the bulletin, during the first half of this year, the government had paid debt services to the DPs in the amount of 213.5 million dollars, of which 155.11 million dollars was bilateral DPs and 58.39 million dollars was multilateral DPs.
Economy and Finance Ministry Spokesman, Meas Soksensan, said that, Cambodia’s public debt situation remained sustainable and at low risk of debt distress.
“Our total external debt is now at between 33 and 35 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product), which is still lower than the threshold of 40 percent,” he said, during a press conference last month.– NNN-AKP