For the first time in years, Samoa’s public debt has dropped under a billion tala.
Since 2018 the Samoa Government’s debts were over a billion, however, over the years it has decreased.
The total Government outstanding debt in FY2021/22 amounted to $948.4 million; it has decreased by 5.6% (or $56.0 million) compared to the previous FY2020/21’s recorded debt of $1.0 billion says the Samoa Bureau of Statistics report on the Government finances ending June 2022.
“Of the outstanding loan amount, 99.8% (or $946.8 million) was sourced from external debt both bilateral and multilateral partners with the remaining 0.2% ($1.6 million) owed to domestic institutions.
Multilateral loans amounted to $485.4 million declining by 5.9% (or $30.3 million) compared to the $515.7 million debt in the previous FY2020/21.
“The majority of multilateral loans taken out by the Government have been acquired from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank with respective compositions to total multilateral loans of 57.6% and 38.1%.
“All loan balances acquired from multilateral institutions have decreased compared to the balances recorded in the previous financial year.
Loans granted based on Bilateral Agreements such as those with the Government of the people’s Republic of China (PRC) and Japan (JICA) totalled $461.4 million in FY2021/22. Of this amount, loans from the PRC amounted to $394.0 million and $67.3 million was from JICA.
Both loans decreased by 2.2% (or $9.0 million) and 17.0% ($13.8 million) respectively when compared to the corresponding year of FY 2020/21.
“ Total outstanding domestic debt stood at $1.6 million decreasing by 64.5% (or $2.9 million) when compared to FY2020/21’s balance.”
