BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 28. Azerbaijan's strategic currency reserves amounted to $89.4 billion as of October 1, 2026, exceeding its external public debt by 19.8 times.
This was reflected in a report by the Ministry of Finance of Azerbaijan.
As of October 1, 2026, Azerbaijan's public debt amounted to over 23.89 billion manat ($14.1 billion).
According to the report, public debt accounted for 17.3% of the country's GDP, projected at nearly 138.04 billion manat ($81.2 billion) for 2026.
Of the total public debt, roughly 7.67 billion manat ($4.5 billion), or 32.1%, accounted for external public debt, while 16.23 billion manat ($9.5 billion), or 67.9%, accounted for domestic public debt.
As of the reporting period, the upper limits set out in the Medium- and Long-Term Public Debt Management Strategy were also observed. Specifically, the requirements that public debt not exceed 30% of GDP and external public debt not exceed $10 billion were met.
External public debt
As of October 1, Azerbaijan's external public debt amounted to $4.5095 billion. This was equivalent to 5.6% of the country's GDP projected for 2026.
External public debt decreased by $304 million compared with January 1, 2026.
According to the breakdown of external public debt by interest rate type, as of the reporting date, 48.8% of the debt consisted of variable-rate liabilities, while 51.2% consisted of fixed-rate liabilities.
Of the external public debt, 67.7% is due to be repaid to creditors within five years, 26.8% within five to 10 years, and 5.5% in more than 10 years.
The US dollar accounted for 86.3% of the currency structure of external public debt. The euro accounted for 5.8%, the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) for 2.9%, the Japanese yen for 3.2%, and other currencies for 1.7%.
During the first 9 months of 2026, the state budget covered payments of $766.9 million in principal and $285.7 million in interest on external debt.
Domestic public debt
As of the reporting period, Azerbaijan's domestic public debt amounted to 16.23 billion manat ($9.5 billion). This was equivalent to 11.8% of the country's GDP projected for 2026.
Domestic public debt decreased by over 1.57 billion manat ($926.1 million) compared with January 1, 2026.
Of the domestic public debt, about 7.77 billion manat ($4.6 billion) accounted for outstanding government securities, while 8.46 billion manat ($5 billion) accounted for government-guaranteed liabilities assumed by the government.
As of October 1 this year, 56% of the outstanding government securities worth about 7.77 billion manat ($4.6 billion) had maturities of up to 5 years, while 44% had maturities of 5 years or more.
As of the reporting period, the average maturity of outstanding government bonds was 3.64 years. According to the Ministry of Finance, the maturity of short-term government bonds issued in previous periods during the first three months of 2026 contributed to an increase in the average maturity of government bonds.
During the first 9 months of 2026, payments of over 2.29 billion manat ($1.4 billion) in principal and 397.1 million manat ($233.6 million) in interest and discount payments on government bonds issued in previous years and reaching maturity were made using state budget funds.
Share of variable-rate debt
As of October 1, 2026, variable-rate liabilities accounted for 15.6% of the total public debt portfolio.
To keep interest rate risk at an acceptable level, the strategy sets a target of keeping the share of variable-rate debt in the total debt portfolio below 50%. As of the reporting date, this indicator was significantly below the established limit.
Government-guaranteed debt decreases
As of October 1, 2026, the total amount of government-guaranteed debt stood at nearly 7.89 billion manat ($4.6 billion). This was equivalent to 5.7% of the country's GDP projected for 2026.
Of the government-guaranteed debt, nearly 4.86 billion manat ($2.9 billion), or 61.6%, accounted for foreign government-guaranteed loans, while about 3.03 billion manat ($1.8 billion), or 38.4%, accounted for domestic government-guaranteed loans.
As of January 1, 2026, government-guaranteed debt amounted to nearly 10.37 billion manat ($6.1 billion), or 8% of GDP for 2025. Thus, as of the reporting date, government-guaranteed debt had decreased by 2.48 billion manat ($1.5 billion) since the beginning of the year.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the significant decline in government-guaranteed debt was related to the repayment of $2 billion in foreign-currency-denominated bonds issued with a state guarantee by the Southern Gas Corridor CJSC.
The US dollar accounted for 57.9% of the currency structure of government-guaranteed debt, the euro for 19.4%, the manat for 16.2%, the Japanese yen for 4.6%, and other currencies for 2%.
By interest rate type, 52.2% of the government-guaranteed debt portfolio consisted of fixed-rate liabilities, while 47.8% consisted of variable-rate liabilities.
Thus, the ministry reported that as of October 1, 2026, Azerbaijan remained within the upper limits established in the Strategy regarding the ratio of total public debt to GDP, the volume of external public debt, and the share of variable-interest debt within the total portfolio; meanwhile, state-guaranteed debt has decreased significantly since the beginning of the year.
