Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – China leads the pack of countries with whom Namibia has external long-term loans, while the British Virgin Islands leads the pack of countries with whom Namibia has external short-term loans.
Namibia’s total foreign debt stock, as the end of March 2018, stood at N$95.1 billion, which reflected a reduction in the debts that the country held in December 2017 when the debts stood at N$97 billion.
However, while the debts held by the central government and the private sector declined, the state-owned enterprises increased their foreign debts in the first three months of this year and are now sitting with a debt stock of N$3.99 billion, from N$3.74 billion they had in December 2017.
Also the total central government loan guarantees increased by 24.6 percent year-on-year and 5.2 percent quarter-on-quarter at the end of March 2018 and now sits at N$10.9 billion.
This is a result of an increase in both domestic, now standing at N$1.8 billion, and foreign loan guarantees which now stand at N$9.1 billion, the Bank of Namibia said in its quarterly bulletin report.
The guarantees for foreign loans were issued to the transport and finance sectors, while guarantees for domestic loans went to the energy and agriculture sectors.
Namibia recorded an increase in the long-term external loans originating from China, which now accounts for 69.9 percent of the total debt as of March 2018. In March 2017, China accounted for 69.1 percent of Namibia’s external long-term loans.
Germany remains the second largest country with Namibia’s longer term loans followed by Tunisia, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, and Poland. Namibia’s total short-term external loans largely originated from the British Virgin Islands, which has 45.3 percent, while South Africa which had 51 percent of short-term loans in March 2017, now only accounts for 27.3 percent.
Other countries are the United States of America with 14.1 percent, Canada with 12.5 percent and United Kingdom with 0.2 percent.
As of 2017 the central government’s external debts stood at N$26.4 billion, while state-owned enterprises held external debts of N$3.74 billion, which comprises N$248.7 million in short-term and N$3.5 billion in long-term debts.