BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 28. Azerbaijan's external public debt amounted to $5.16 billion (8.77 billion manat), or 6.9 percent of GDP, as of January 1, 2025, while internal public debt was 18.66 billion manat ($10.97 billion), or 14.8 percent of GDP.
Data obtained by Trend from the Ministry of Finance shows that external debt decreased by 20.4 percent year-on-year; however, internal debt grew by 17.6 percent.
This change resulted from a targeted domestic borrowing policy under the "Medium- and Long-Term Government Debt Management Strategy," aimed at replacing external debt with domestic debt, which helped develop the domestic government securities market.
As a result, the country's total government debt at the end of last year amounted to 27.4 billion manat, or $16.1 billion (a two percent increase).
Last year, Azerbaijan's state budget allocated 1.29 billion manat ($759 million) for servicing public debt and obligations. Of this amount, 170.3 million manat ($100.3 million) was spent on internal debt (interest payments), and 1.12 billion manat ($662 million) on external debt, including 1.12 billion manat or $660 million (850 million manat or $500 million for principal repayment and 275.2 million manat or $163.9 million for interest payments).
