In the first ten months of 2006 the foreign debt increased by EUR2.1 billion, with business enterprises making the greatest contribution to the debt growth, while the government cut its share in it, HNB analysts said in the latest issue of the bank's bulletin.
In September, the foreign debt rose by EUR200 million, mainly as a result of the growing debt incurred by business enterprises, while the increase of EUR500 million in October was encouraged by commercial banks and business companies.
At the end of last October the banks' foreign debt reached EUR9.6 billion, increasing by EUR200 million since the end of 2005.
The bulletin says that the annual growth rate of the banks' foreign debt slowed down from 14.9 per cent at the end of 2005 to 11.4 per cent at the end of October 2006.
Although still strong, the growth of the banks' foreign debt was lower than the overall debt growth, and its share in the overall debt declined from 35.2 per cent at the end of 2005 to 33.4 per cent, HNB analysts said.
In the first ten months of last year the business enterprises increased their foreign debt by EUR1.9 billion. Their debt further rose by an additional 400 million based on direct ownership investments in companies, so that the overall foreign debt of the business enterprises reached EUR11.6 billion (9.08 billion of the companies' debt and 2.66 billion of direct investments).
The annual growth rate of the companies' foreign debt picked up to 30.3 per cent and their share in the overall foreign debt increased to 41.9 per cent.
On the other hand, the government reduced its foreign liabilities by EUR400 million, so that the government debt was EUR6.7 billion. Consequently, the share of the government debt in the overall foreign debt declined from 27.6 per cent at the end of 2005 to 24.1 per cent at the end of October 2006.