This year's public debt payments: over 9 billion euros

The Finance Ministry will have to pay at least 9 billion euros this year as part of the domestic and foreign public debt, because of the loans it took at the end of last year.

The strengthening of the RON, however, is making the effort to repay the debt in euros easier, even though in nominal terms, the debt service might increase via new loans from the domestic and foreign markets, included in the strategy to finance the almost 8 billion-euro budget deficit.

The interests paid for the money taken from the IMF alone stood at more than 30 million euros in the first two months.

The Finance Ministry, however, anticipates an about 4 billion euro drop in the governmental public debt service this year compared with 2009, that is in the payments on the principal and interests.

According to the prospectus of the eurobond issue released in March, 2010's debt service is anticipated at 38.4 billion RON (9.1 billion euros), compared with 56.7 billion RON in 2009 (13.4 billion euros). The debt service expected for 2013 stands at 13.5 billion RON.