L'Economiste: Morocco lowers external debt by 38% between 1995-2002

Morocco has lowered its public external debt by 38% between 1995 and 2002, which is a total amount of 8.6 billion dollars in 7 years, said manager of the Moroccan treasury in an interview published this Friday by "L'Economiste" daily.

The total amount has been brought down from US$ 22.6 billion in 1995 to US$ 14 billion in 2002, said Abdelatif Loudiyi, who added the ratio public external debt/GDP went down from 68% to 35%. Compared to the balance of payments, the rate dropped from 192% in 1995 to 85% in 2002.

The official explained that Morocco's active management of the treasury external debt, launched in 1996 to bring external indebtedness to a "bearable" level, has covered the period between 2001 and 2002 a total amount of US$ 500 million, including US$ 300 million that were swapped into public and private investments and US$ 200 million of onerous debts that were paid back before due time.

Although he conceded that the debt swapping into investments is slowing down, particularly with the Paris Club, the official explained that indebtedness active management is a longstanding process that is not restricted to debts conversion into investments but covers other mechanisms.