Slovakia's gross foreign indebtedness was $12.048 billion at the end January 1999, up from $11.902 at the end of December, 1998.
The official indebtedness of the Slovak government and the central bank was $2.432 billion, while the commercial sector (business entities and commercial banks) accounted for $9.514 billion, Pavol Kyjac of the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) FOREX Liabilities Department said on May 7.
Kyjac explained the January increase as a result of the new methodology of declaring foreign debt that the NBS had been using since January 1. According to the new method, Slovak crown debts held towards non-residents (banks), government bonds and T-Bills owned by non-residents are included in calculations of Slovakia's foreign debt. The short-term deposit operations of the NBS are also included under the category of short-term foreign debt.
Within the structure of total gross foreign indebtedness, total mid- and long-term foreign liabilities equaled $7.185 billion, while total short-term debt accounted for $4.863 billion.
The total gross foreign debt per capita was $2,236. The share of total short-term debt of the total gross foreign debt of the country equaled 40.37%, down 1.68% in January 1999 compared with December 1998.
