Ministry Of Finance: We Spend On National Debt As Much As On Defense, Education, Medicine And Sport All Combined

The authorities have indirectly acknowledged that Belarus is approaching the default.

Belarus spends 10% of the republican budget on external and internal debts maintenance. As the First Deputy Minister of Finance Maksim Yermalovich said, payments on loans amounted to more than 7 billion rubles last year, tut.by reports.

Over the past year, the state debt of Belarus increased by 11.7% and reached 39.2 billion Belarusian rubles. This amount is twice as much as the revenues of the republican budget and is 41.7% of GDP. The critical value is 45-50%.

– Large-scale borrowings associated with supporting the real sector of the economy, restructuring the obligations of the government and local authorities have led to an increase in the debt of the public administration sector - by 5.1 billion rubles (14.9%)," – Maksim Yermalovich said.

The main burden of maintaining the external debt fell on the budget. $ 3.2 billion was sent to its repayment.

Although the Ministry of Finance considers the current national debt to be "manageable and maintainable", its further growth is undesirable and can create serious problems.

– In 2016, the debt burden on the budget was comparable to the amount of financing from the republican budget of such sectors as national defense, law enforcement, national economy, health, physical education, sports, media and education combined, – Vice Chairman of the State Control Committee Aliaksandr Kurlypa held parallels.