OREANDA-NEWS. September 01, 2008. Minister of Finance said it and marked that Moldova’s foreign debt for the last eight years had reduced to USD 765.8 mln. in 2007 from USD 781.3 mln. in 2000.

The Ministry of Finance’s head said Moldova’s foreign debt in 2008 had increased by USD 21.08 mln. – to USD 786.88 mln. (as of July 31, 2008) from USD 765.8 mln. owing to new credits from abroad, in particular, the credit from the International Development Association in the amount of USD 9.83 mln. for supporting poverty level reduction as well as owing to the change of the dollar’s exchange rate against other currencies.

Mariana Durlesteanu said multilateral creditors – the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Agriculture Development Fund, the Bank of the Council of Europe, the Investment Bank were Moldova’s main creditors in its foreign debt structure.

Moldova’s foreign debt to multilateral creditors as of July 31 of this year totaled USD 483.2 mln. or 61.4% of the total volume, and the debt to bilateral creditors amounts to USD 275.8 mln. (35%).

The leaders among Moldova’s main multilateral creditors are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association - the World Bank structures with 56.4% of the total amount of debt falling to their share.

Mariana Durlesteanu emphasized that the Moldovan Government was interested in attraction of credits for the investment purposes on the concession terms from the International Development Association that provides loans for 40 years with the 10-year payment delay at 0.75 percent p.a.

Finance Minister said Russia was the leader among Moldova’s bilateral creditors - USD 134.80 mln. It is followed by the USA (USD 56.12 mln.), the German bank KfW (USD 24.65 mln.) and Japan (USD 23.05 mln.).

The Ministry of Finance’s head marked the tendency toward the reduction of expenses for paying off the foreign debt. The respective expenses were cut to 645.3 mln. lei (USD 53.2 mln.) in 2007 from 1 bln. 117.9 mln. lei (USD 86.3 mln.) in 2001.

In 2008, as of July 1, expenses for paying off Moldova’s foreign debt totaled 305.18 mln. lei (USD 28.51 mln.).