Kyrgyzstan on brink of debt default PM

[Ulhas Joglekar]

29 December 1999
Kyrgyzstan on brink of debt default: PM
BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan's Prime minister Amangeldy Muraliyev said on Tuesday his
Central Asian country risked defaulting on its foreign debts. "We are on the
brink of default," Muraliyev told reporters in capital Bishkek.
He added that Kyrgyzstan's external debt now exeeded its annual gross
domestic product, which in 1999 totalled 44 billion soms ($978 million).
Muraliyev declined to say how much the country had paid in 1999 but said
$83.6 million would have to be paid in 2000.
"The country will use all means to pay off its foreign debts," Muraliyev
said, adding that promised pay rises to the country's 4.5 million people
would not now take place. The minimum wage in Kyrgyzstan is about 100 soms.
Kyrgyzstan's total forign debt stands at $1.5 billion. More than 80 percent
of it was received from international multilateral lenders on extremely
generous terms and the country earlier this year managed to restructure some
bilateral loans.
Muraliyev said about 40 percent of the budget expenditure this year had been
kept aside for debt payments. Kyrgyzstan was possibly the worst hit of all
the Central Asian states after the currency collapse in Russia, its main
trading partner, and low world prices for gold its main export.
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