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State Duma ratifies protocol on writing off Kyrgyz debt to Russia

19 January 2018 17:43 (UTC+04:00)
State Duma ratifies protocol on writing off Kyrgyz debt to Russia

By Kamila Aliyeva

The State Duma ratified the protocol to the agreement between the governments of Russia and Kyrgyzstan on the settlement of the republic's debt to Russia on previously granted loans.

In 2012, Russia and Kyrgyzstan reached an intergovernmental agreement on a phased write-off of Kyrgyzstan's debt, which at that time amounted to $488.9 million.

In May 2013, Russia wrote off $188.9 million and from 2016 to 2017 - another $60 million. The protocol on the write-off of the remaining $240 million by the Russian side was signed during the visit of Kyrgyz Ex-President Almazbek Atambayev to Moscow in June 2017.

On December 9, 2017, Kyrgyz newly elected President Sooronbai Jeenbekov signed the law passed earlier by the country's parliament on writing off this debt to Russia.

The protocol assumes a one-time write-off of the Kyrgyz Republic's outstanding debt to Russia in full in the framework of official development assistance to Kyrgyzstan.

As a result of write-offs, the amount of the state external debt Kyrgyzstan will decrease by 6.5 percent, and the ratio of the debt of the Kyrgyz government to GDP will decrease from 65.2 percent to 60.6 percent, according to the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes.

The implementation of the protocol and the cancellation of the debts of the Kyrgyz Republic will not entail falling federal budget revenues, since provisions of the agreement do not provide for any payments of Kyrgyzstan to Russia from March 16, 2016, the explanatory note to the bill said.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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