PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s public debt stood at US$11.27 billion as of the end of the second quarter of this year, according to the Cambodia Public Debt Statistical Bulletin released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
As much as 47 percent of the public debt is in U.S. dollar while Special Drawing Rights (SDR) constituted 19 percent, Chinese yuan 11 percent, Japanese yen 11 percent, euro 7 percent, and local/other currencies 5 percent, read the bulletin.
Of the amount, 99 percent or US$11.16 billion is public external debt and the rest is domestic public debt, it pointed out.
The bulletin stated that 63 percent of the public debt is borrowings from bilateral development partners, while 37 percent came from multilateral development partners.
In first half of this year, the Royal Government of Cambodia signed new concessional loans with development partners for US$313 million, equivalent to SDR 237 million, accounting for 14 percent of the ceiling permitted by law, the report noted.
Overall, all the loans are highly concessional with an average grant element of around 56 percent, the bulletin said.
“The purpose of these loans is to finance public investment projects in priority sectors that support long-term sustainable economic growth and economic productivity of the country,” the source added.
Cambodia’s public debt situation continues to remain “sustainable and at low risk,” the ministry said in the bulletin.
According to the bulletin, the government paid debt services to the tune of US$50 million for public external and domestic debt.