Public debt at $62 billion

$13 billion will be due in 2014

Gross public debt reached $62.39 billion at end-September 2013, up by 8.2 percent compared to end September 2012, according to the Ministry of Finance. This year-on-year increase is the biggest since 2006. At end-2012, the gross public debt was 134 percent of the GDP, almost unchanged from 2011.

Debt in domestic currency reached the equivalent of $36 billion at end-September 2013, marking an increase of 8.1 percent since end-2012. Foreign currency debt totaled $26.4 billion, up by 8.3 percent.

In September 2013, the Ministry of Finance had issued 12-year Treasury bills for a value of $1.26 billion in domestic currency, at 8.74 percent interest. It also issued ten-year bonds totaling $377 million at 8.24 percent interest.

The state will spend a total of $2.83 billion in third quarter 2013 in debt servicing (principals and interests), and $13 billion in 2014.

Interest on T-bills has dropped from 7.8 percent in September 2006 to 4.8 percent in June 2012. It then rose to 5.4 percent until end September 2013.