DUSHANBE, July 24, 2015, Asia-Plus -- Over the first six months of this year, the country’s foreign debt has declined 34.6 million U.S. dollars (USD) to 2.1 billion USD, First Deputy Minister of Finance, Jamshed Karimzoda, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 24.

According to him, Tajikistan’s foreign debt is now equal to 19 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“The national budget has allocated 70 million USD for the external debt service, including more than 55 million U.S. dollars for principal debt payments and about 16 million USD for debt interest payments,” Karimzoda said.

Six loan and grant agreements to the total amount of 873 million somoni have reportedly been signed over the first half of this year for implementation of five new investment projects.

“Tajikistan is currently conducting negations with the Anti-crisis Fund, the Word Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other international financial institutions on attraction of funds to support the national budget,” Karimzoda said.

He noted that Tajikistan now owes 326.5 million USD to the World Bank and 277 million USD to the Asian Development Bank.  China reportedly remains Tajikistan’s largest creditor – 942 million USD.

We will recall that as of June 30, 2014, Tajikistan’s external debt amounted to 2.2 billion USD.