OREANDA-NEWS. December 18, 2009. According to the NBU, the total external debt grew 3.8%, q/q to USD 104.4bn in 3Q09. In particular, the external public debt increased by 24.2% to USD 24.1bn. Corporate external debt rose by 1.2% to USD 41.5bn, while the external debt of commercial banks was reduced by 5.1% to USD 33.6 in 3Q09.

Millennium Capital: the main factor underlying the external debt growth was the IMF financing in 3Q09. Namely, in August 2009, the Fund provided USD 3.3bn of its third tranche and USD 2.1bn of SDR’s, resulting from the IMF charter fund increase. Meanwhile, the commercial banks continued redeeming their external debt, having slightly increased borrowings from EBRD (USD 130mn in 3Q09). Millennium Capital expects that, despite the postponement of the IMF fourth tranche provision, the external debt will slightly increase in 4Q09, mainly due to an increase in the amount of external loans guaranteed by the government as well as a slight increase in the banks’ subordinated loans.