La Paz, Jan 8 (Prensa Latina) With an external debt of 29.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), Bolivia today maintains an adequate management of this international commitment, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Marcelo Montenegro, assured today.
He recalled that this indicator reached 99.1 percent of the size of the economy in 1987, remained above 50 percent during the neoliberal governments, and only decreased to 28.2 percent with the coming to power in 2006 of the former president. Evo Morales.
In November 2019, when the coup d’état by the conservative forces took place, Bolivia’s indebtedness was around 27.4 percentage points, according to a graph shown by the headline during an interview on the Bolivia TV channel.
However, in the management of the de facto regime of Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020) this indicator rose again to 33 percent, Montenegro explained.
He added that “it has been reduced in the government of President Luis Arce to 29.9 percent, what does that mean? That there is adequate management of external indebtedness.”
The minister stressed that this situation allows Bolivia to attend the capital markets, where multilateral organizations grant it credits because it has economic movement, production capacity and income generation.
Economy and Finance reports specify that according to monthly reports on the Central Bank’s external public debt in 2021, around 70 percent of this commitment is with multilateral organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the Latin American Development Bank, mainly.
The ministry refers that this qualitative element is important because these organizations do not grant loans that are not intended for investment, a requirement that is met in the Plurinational State.
Additionally, different organizations previously evaluate the macroeconomic performance of the requesting country before the disbursement of these loans.
All the studies carried out -adds the portfolio- reflect the good behavior of Bolivia’s economic variables, that is, the Plurinational State is solvent in terms of debt before the rest of the world.
The Bolivian authorities warn that the implementation of the Community Social Economic Model and a responsible fiscal policy resulted in the country’s total public debt in 2022 being among the lowest in Latin America and the Caribbean, and is lower than those of nations like Argentina , Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay.
The ministry describes that the Bolivian public debt is well below the limits set by international organizations such as the Maastricht Treaty, which sets it at 60 percentage units, which offers an acceptable margin to access greater resources needed for investments.
Source: Prensa-Latina
