“External debt increased by 40.9% or $7.1 billion over the year,” the regulator said.

This is due to the attraction of new external borrowings to finance state programs for the development of economic sectors and regions.

External debt consists of public and private ones. In 2013-2017, both of them increased considerably. But in 2018, the private debt began to decline, as it was time to return money to enterprises in the oil and gas as well as energy industries.

In 2019, private sector debt began to increase again mainly due to the growth of bank borrowings.

The main part of the debt falls to the public sector – $15.8 billion. The private debt amounted to $8.6 billion.