Page 56 - RPTRusFeb17

MinFin also wants to increase the average duration of its debt stock to 5 years, from 3.9 years in 2016. Currently, MinFin estimates that short-term bonds (<3 years) account for 28%, including RUB 707.3bn maturing in 2017. Mid-term issues (between 4 and 10 years) make up to 46% and the rest (26%) is long-term notes (>10 years).
Russia will repay the last of its Soviet debt of $125mn to Bosnia and Herzegovina this year t o clear the entire $66bn debt it inherited when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Izvestiya newspaper reported on February 17. The finance ministry in Moscow said earlier in February that it has repaid $60.6mn debt to the former-Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia, and the remaining debt will be repaid in the summer, an unnamed ministry source told the newspaper . "In a sense, it is a PR campaign," economist and politician Andrei Nechayev told the bfm.ru news portal . "Despite sanctions, we are paying our debts. It's a nice way to show that Russia is a reliable borrower." Russia paid off the remaining $22bn of Soviet-era debts to the Paris Club of creditors in 2006, while the Soviet debt to China was settled in 2015 with a payment of CHF400mn ($400mn).
Russia's total foreign debt amounted to $38.6bn on October 1, 2016 , according to the central bank. Moscow pledged to cut foreign borrowing after the imposition of Western sanctions in 2014, but collapsing oil prices left the Kremlin struggling to meet the state budget.
Preliminary CBR figures show companies and banks in Russia (Russian and foreign-owned) owed $470bn (€446bn) in foreign debt as of end-2016. The external debt-to-GDP ratio remained roughly unchanged at 36%. Banks owed $119bn (end-2015 $132bn) and firms $351bn (end-2015 $345bn). For comparison, the domestic bank loans to firms amounted to $426bn. Unlike in the previous two years, the ruble's appreciation in 2016 supported the forex valuation of the foreign debt held by banks and especially other firms. Nearly 20% of corporate debt and 13% of bank debt is denominated in rubles. Banks continued to pay down substantial chunks of foreign debt last year, although the
56 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com