06.10.2016

The government debt management policy pursued in 2015 followed the budgetary framework, the planned medium-term economic perspectives and key priorities of the government and the measures to attain the defined debt management strategic objectives aimed at timely and reliable provision of effective debt sources and maintenance of the stability of the key debt indicators.

As of the end of 2015, the nominal value of the government debt stood at BGN 22,714.1 million, of which BGN 15,430.8 million external and BGN 7,283.3 million domestic debt. In nominal terms the government debt marked a growth of BGN 611.8 million compared to the level recorded at the end of 2014, which is mainly due to the debt transactions executed throughout the year to raise the needed financial resources on both GS domestic market and international capital markets. As of the end of 2015, the government debt/ GDP ratio was 26,3% against 26,4% as of end-December 2014.

The placement of 7-, 12- and 20-year Euro bonds in the framework of the GMTN programme and the assuming of new external debt to finance the "Bulgaria EU Funds Co-financing 2014-2020 (Structural Programme Loan)" project are the main factors behind the positive developments in the currency structure of the government debt. As of the end of 2015, 99.0% of the government debt were denominated in EUR and BGN, reaching 75.9% and 23.0%, respectively, of the total government debt, with the debt in USD and other currencies decreasing to 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively.

The government debt interest structure showed an increase of the debt with fixed interest rate coupons. Their share in the total debt as at 31.12.2015 was 93.3%. The portion of debt with floating interest rates at the end of the year was 6.7%.

As of the end of 2015, the government guaranteed debt in nominal terms decreased by BGN 64.7 million compared to the level of December 2014, and reached BGN 586.4 million, of which BGN 58.0 million domestic and BGN 528.4 million external government guaranteed debt. The reported decrease is due to the redemption payments on government guaranteed loans during the year. The government guaranteed debt/ GDP ratio was 0.7% against 0.9% at the end of 2014.

The annual government debt review for 2015 is published in the Statistics section.