The gross external debt of Georgia amounted to 17.8 billion USD (47.5 billion GEL) as of December 31, 2018, 109.6 percent of last year’s GDP, - the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) said on March 28.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, the gross external debt of Georgia increased by 533.3 million USD, of which 616.5 million USD increase was due to transactions and 7.8 million USD - due to other changes. Meanwhile, exchange rate and price changes led to decrease by 65.7 million USD and 25.3 million USD, respectively.

According to NBG, public sector external debt amounted to 7.4 billion USD (19.9 billion GEL) or 45.8 percent of GDP. Out of which, debt of the general government amounted to 5.4 billion USD (14.4 billion GEL) or 33.2 percent of GDP. External liabilities of the National Bank of Georgia amounted to 369.2 million USD (988.2 million GEL) or 2.3 percent of GDP. And, the bonds and loans of public enterprises were correspondingly 790.6 million USD (2.1 billion GEL) or 4.9 percent of GDP and 874.0 million USD (2.3 billion GEL) and 5.4 percent of GDP.

Banking sector external debt amounted to 4.3 billion USD (11.4 billion GEL) or 26.4 percent of GDP; Other sectors' external debt stood at 5.3 billion USD (14.3 billion GEL) or 33.0 percent of GDP; While 2.4 billion USD (6.4 billion GEL) or 14.7 percent of GDP was the intercompany lending. The 90.0 percent of the gross external debt of Georgia was denominated in foreign currency.

The net external debt of Georgia amounted to 10.4 billion USD (27.8 billion GEL) or 64.1 percent of GDP as of 31 December 2018. Net public sector external debt was 4.1 billion USD (11.0 billion GEL) or 25.3 percent of GDP.

External liabilities of the National Bank of Georgia increased by 40.8 million USD, out of that, transactions led to increase of the debt by 41.8 million USD, exchange rate changes contracted the debt by 1.0 million USD. By the end of 2018, the external debt of the National Bank of Georgia amounted to 369.2 million USD, of which 200.6 million USD are Special Drawing Rights (SDR)1 which have no maturity date, therefore there is no obligation to repay them as long as Georgia is a member of the IMF.