Bulgaria’s gross foreign debt has decreased by 10.4% year-on-year in November 2015, reaching EUR 34.54 B equivalent to 77.4% of the projected 2015 GDP, the country’s central bank announced on 27 January.

The end-November figure was also 12.2% lower than the gross foreign debt at the end of 2014, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a monthly debt report.

Long-term foreign debt totalled EUR 26.51 B at end-November 2015 equivalent to 59.4% of the 2015 GDP forecast by the BNB.

This was a decrease of 9.8% in long-term debt compared with the end of 2014 and a year-on-year drop of 10.6%

Short-term foreign debt totalled EUR 8.0 B equivalent to 18% of the projected 2015 GDP at end-November. The debt figure was 19.4% lower compared with the end of 2014 and 9.7% lower compared with end-November 2014.

Gross foreign debt service totalled EUR 7.5 B for the first 11 months of last year (16.8% of GDP), compared with EUR 5.0 B (11.8% of GDP) in the same period of 2014.

Bulgaria’s net foreign debt (gross debt less gross foreign assets in debt instruments) totalled EUR 6.9 B at end-November 2015, a decrease of 49.3% compared with end-2014. The drop was due to the decline in gross foreign debt by 12.2% and an increase in gross foreign assets by 7.7%, the BNB said.