VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnamese Government’s debt balance increased over the years to reach about $86 billion by the end of 2014, according to the public debt bulletin published by the Ministry of Finance.

As defined by the authorities, these are debts arising from loans in the country and abroad, which were signed on behalf of the State and Government or other loans signed, released, or authorized by the Ministry of Finance.

With the debt, in 2014 alone, Vietnam had to pay expenses worth more than VND260 trillion ($12.38 billion).

This figure increased compared to $75 billion in 2013. In comparison to the figure of 2010, when the debt was at just over VND889 trillion ($44.45 billion), governmentdebt in 2014 doubled.

According to the debt structure, domestic debt is still larger than foreign debt. Specifically, in 2014, foreign debt was over VND810 trillion ($40.5 billion) while local debt was $47.6 billion.

As reported by the Ministry of Finance, by the end of 2015, government debt was estimated at 50.3% of the country’s GDP. Meanwhile, the permitted debt ceiling for the period 2011-2015 set by the 13th National Assembly XIII was 50% of GDP. Thus, the government debt in 2015 was 0.3% higher than the ceiling.

US$1 = VND22,300

Nguyen Nam