PHNOM PENH, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian government had a total public debt stock of 12.03 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2024, up 7 percent from 11.24 billion dollars at the end of 2023, according to the Cambodia Public Debt Statistical Bulletin on Tuesday.

Published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the bulletin showed that 99 percent or 11.92 billion dollars was public external debt and 1 percent or 115 million dollars was public domestic debt.

The composition of the public debt stock consisted of 49 percent in USD, 18 percent in SDR (Special Drawing Rights), 10 percent in JPY, 10 percent in CNY, 8 percent in EUR and 5 percent in local and other currencies, the bulletin said.

Last year, the government had signed new concessional loans with development partners in total amount of 1.79 billion dollars, which accounted for 81 percent of the ceiling permitted by law, it said.

"Overall, all the loans are highly concessional with an average grant element of around 45 percent," the bulletin said.

The bulletin said the Southeast Asian country had paid debt services to development partners in the amount of 558.7 million dollars in 2024.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth said all of the loans had been used to finance public investment projects in the priority sectors that support long-term sustainable economic growth and increase economic productivity.

"Cambodia's public debt situation is currently at a controllable level and continues to remain "sustainable" and "low risk" of debt distress," he said in the bulletin.

The kingdom's total public debt is at 19 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is far lower than the threshold of 40 percent, according to the bulletin. Enditem

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