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Cambodia’s public debt remains at low risk

The Royal Government of Cambodia had a total public debt of $9.47 billion as of September 2022, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said, affirming that the public debt remained at low risk.

The public debt comprised 68 percent from bilateral Developing Partners (DPs) and 32 percent from multilateral DPs, according to the ministry’s Cambodia Public Debt Statistical Bulletin published recently.

During the first nine months of 2022, the government had paid debt services to DPs in the amount of $404.5 million, in which $311.6 million was bilateral DPs and $92.9 million was multilateral DPs, according to the bulletin.

The government had signed new concessional loans with DPs with a total amount of $1.21 billion, which accounted for 59 percent of the ceiling permitted by law, in the January-September period of this year, it said.

The purpose of the newly-signed loan is to finance public investment projects in the priority sectors that support long-term sustainable economic growth and increase economic productivity, the ministry said.

“The public debt situation remained “sustainable” and “low-risk” of debt distress despite being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and other external factors,” read the bulletin.

“All the key debt indicators in 2022 are well below the thresholds, of which the main debt indicator, the present value of public and publicly guaranteed external debt to GDP, is at 24.9 percent compared to the 40 percent threshold,” underlined the same source. AKP-Chea Vannak