Blog post

Whose is Russia’s external debt?

Data from the Central Bank of Russia show that, as of 1st Quarter of 2014, 90% of the country’s external debt was attributable to banks and other (non

Publishing date
07 October 2014
Authors
Silvia Merler

Note: for Banks, “loans” includes also debt liabilities to direct investors and to direct investment enterprises

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Data from the Central Bank of Russia show that, as of 1st Quarter of 2014, 90% of the country’s external debt was attributable to banks and other sectors, whereas government debt accounted for about 7.5% of the total. However, given that publicly-owned banks and companies are not singled out in this data, the actual government share is most likely higher. For both banks and other sectors’ external debt, loans and liabilities to direct investors are the biggest component.

And when is this debt coming due?

54% of Russia’s external debt has maturity of over two years (unspecified); 10% is between 1 and 2 years whereas about 23% has maturity of 1 year or less. For part of the external debt, the schedule is not available or inexistent (debt without schedule). Of that part of debt that is coming due within 1 year, the biggest redemptions will be in December 2014 - with 32 USD billions of banks and other sectors’ debt coming due - and Q5-2015, with 28 billion.

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About the authors

  • Silvia Merler

    Silvia Merler, an Italian citizen, is the Head of ESG and Policy Research at Algebris Investments.

    She joined Bruegel as Affiliate fellow at Bruegel in August 2013. Her main research interests include international macro and financial economics, central banking and EU institutions and policy making.

    Before joining Bruegel, she worked as Economic Analyst in DG Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission (ECFIN). There she focused on macro-financial stability as well as financial assistance and stability mechanisms, in particular on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), providing supportive analysis for the policy negotiations.

     

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