Foreign debt service: $1.3-$2.1bn annually

The annual foreign public debt service will maintain at about $1.3-$2.1bn throughout 2003-2007, a Finance Ministry report shows. The document specifies the annual payments on Romania’s foreign public debt will reach $1,972.7 million in 2004, $1,784.6 million in 2005, $1,415.7 million in 2006 and $1,355.5 million in 2007. This year’s foreign public debt service is estimated to $2,057.7 million, considering the Public Finance Ministry will have to repay the 150 million euro issue released in 2000 this October. Early in the year, the payments on the direct public foreign debt secured by the Finance Ministry falling due in 2003 were estimated to $1,785 million. “As far as the indebtedness strategy is concerned, caution should be exerted in the contracting of the public foreign debt for less than five-year terms, in order to avoid an accumulation of due dates in this period,” the report shows. The foreign public debt is that part of the public debt of the State, which comprises all the international market-related obligations directly contracted or secured by the State. ZF