Russian government debt. The Ministry of Finance has found a way to reduce Russia's national debt State external debt of the Russian Federation


The Russian Federation belongs to the category of states that are also a major global creditor , and the debtor. Although she is still very far away. Let's look at what Russia's external debt is, what its condition, structure, and maintenance are.

Russia's external debt

The Budget Code of the Russian Federation, or more specifically, Article 6 of the document, defines Russian external debt as obligations of the state arising in foreign currency.

By external we usually mean the total external debt of all legal entities - residents of the Russian Federation, that is, both government and business structures.

At the same time, Russia’s state external debt includes the following obligations:

  • federal authorities;
  • subjects of the federation;
  • Central Bank of the Russian Federation

The official source of information on the current state, structure, history, payment plans for Russia's external public debt is the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. See a separate article on the functions of the Central Bank. Current debt indicators, as well as a preliminary assessment of its status as of a certain date - for example, on April 12, an approximate estimate was given for April 1 - are published in the “External Sector Statistics” section of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation web resource: http://www.cbr.ru/statistics/?PrtId=svs .


Detailed official background information on Russian external debt is also contained on the website of the Russian Ministry of Finance: https://www.minfin.ru/ru/perfomance/public_debt/external. In particular, the department lays out repayment schedules for external government debt by type of debt obligations of the Russian Federation.

History of the public debt of the Russian Federation

The government debt of the Russian Federation actually formed in 1991 - immediately after the collapse of the USSR, when Russia, as its successor, completely assumed the debts of the Soviet Union. The former Soviet republics that had fallen away from the center paid for this by renouncing their share in Soviet foreign assets. The debt history data below is collected from messages from the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance.

In the 1990s, a period of severe economic crisis, Russia practically stopped repaying the USSR debt and began to accumulate new debt obligations. Accordingly, their volume grew and after 1998 reached the then local maximum of 188 billion USD. Part of the money was borrowed from:


After the peak of the crisis reached in 1998 and the passage of default, Russian external debt began to decrease - in the early 2000s, thanks to rising oil prices, Russia began its economic strengthening. By the end of the summer of 2006, after lengthy negotiations, Russia repaid $22.5 billion in Paris Club loans ahead of schedule.

Following this, a new phase of debt growth began - the improvement of the financial situation in the country in the 2000s made foreign loans available. As a result, having fallen to 146 billion USD by 2002, Russian external debt grew again by 2008 to almost 0.5 trillion USD.

The volume of Russian foreign loans slowed down in the same 2008 due to. But just a year later, the indicator of the external public debt of the Russian Federation again showed growth and continued its ascent.

In 2013, payments were made on the debt of the USSR to the Czech Republic, Finland and Montenegro in a total amount of 3.65 billion USD. However, against the background of the total external debt, this amount amounted to only 0.5%. On August 8, 2017, Russia completed settlements with the creditors of the Union, paying $125.2 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A new (not yet surpassed) maximum of Russian external debt - over 700 billion USD - was noted in the summer of 2014. After that, it began to fall rapidly due to Western sanctions imposed on the Russian state due to the annexation of Crimea and the conflict with Ukraine. Western financial institutions were deprived of the opportunity to continue lending to residents of the Russian Federation.

In the winter of 2014-2015, peak payments were made on Russian foreign debt - more than $100 billion in several months. This led to a currency crisis in Russia and the fall of the ruble, as well as a significant reduction in the state's gold and foreign exchange reserves. During the year of the moratorium on lending, the volume of the Russian Federation’s external debt decreased by almost 200 billion USD.

It may seem surprising, but Russia's current public debt to GDP is only 12.6% - only four countries in the world have a lower figure. The TOP 10 global debtors have a ratio of more than 100%, while Japan has a ratio of about 250%. In terms of absolute value, the undisputed leader is the United States with an indicator of more than 20 trillion. $.

Comparison of external and internal debt of the Russian Federation

This is what the dynamics of the external debt of the Russian Federation looks like compared to the state internal debt:



Current state of the internal debt of the Russian Federation: https://www.minfin.ru/ru/perfomance/public_debt/internal. Since internal debt on the Ministry of Finance website is measured in national currency (rubles), it is better to compare it with external debt in dollars with a floating exchange rate at the end of each year. At the end of 2017, external debt was 3.75 times greater than internal debt.

The difference in the graphs is obvious - since there cannot be sanctions on internal debt, there has been a noticeable increase in it over the past 10 years - during the period 2007-2017, the internal debt of the Russian Federation increased 8 times. External debt is less than double. The most stable period in both cases was in 2000-2005, when oil revenues covered all government needs without the need for internal and external borrowing. Current volume of debt of the Russian Federation, billion rubles (external + internal, quarterly):

Current external debt of Russia

As of January 1, 2018, Russia’s external debt amounted to $529.1 billion. According to the Central Bank, the 2017 figure was exceeded by 2.9%. The Bank of Russia explained the increase in external debt by two factors:

1. the growing interest of foreign investors in Russian government securities, which they are allowed to buy;

2. attracting debt financing from structures of Russian companies located abroad

According to the financial mega-regulator, the external debt of Russian banking organizations, on the contrary, has decreased to its lowest level over the past decade.

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance stated that in the event of new Western sanctions hitting Russian government bonds, the government will find other sources of financing the federal budget.

Structure of Russian external debt

Russia's external debt includes:

  • the actual public debt of the Russian Federation is the obligations of the federal authorities;
  • external debt of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation;
  • debt of the banking sector (commercial banks - private and state property);
  • debt of “other sectors” - Russian companies, organizations, enterprises.

Over the past year, the federal authorities increased the Russian debt from $39.178 to a new figure of $55.629 billion, or by 42%:

  • liabilities in foreign currency increased by 27%, from $11.662 to a new value of $14.882 billion;
  • securities in rubles - by 54%, from 25.032 to a new number of 38.708 billion USD (equivalent).

The external debt of the Central Bank increased - from 12.334 to a new figure of 14.974 billion USD, or by 21%.

The debt of the banking sector decreased from 119.395 to a new figure of 104.518 billion in US currency, by 12%.

Corporate debt of Russian companies increased from $343.225 to a new value of $353.963 billion, by 3%, remaining the largest among liabilities of all sectors.

One of the most important economic indicators for the state is the Russian national debt. In real time, this kind of parameter can be tracked using a special counter. Statistics on public debt are published by the government annually. Having studied them, it is possible to determine the dynamics of changes in the internal and external debts of the Russian Federation.

History of public debt

Before getting acquainted with the indicators shown by the Russian external debt counter online, it is advisable to study in more detail the history of such debts, their origin and the dynamics of their repayment. For the first time, obligations to pay external debts arose in the Russian Federation after the collapse of the USSR, in 1991.

The state accepted them voluntarily. In exchange for the renunciation of former member countries of the USSR from shares in the country's foreign assets. Debt from the Soviet Union made up the majority of Russia's debt, but during the period of economic instability in the 1990s, the government began to increase the amount of debt by accepting loans from other states.

The government regularly updates data on public debt

Accelerated repayment of debts began in 1998 and continues to this day. Thanks to the stabilization of economic indicators, Russia managed to completely repay the financial obligations of the USSR by 2017, making a payment of $125.2 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 2013, Russia also fulfilled its obligations to such states as Finland, the Czech Republic, and Montenegro. At the same time, the total amount of payments exceeded $3.6 billion.

Debt amount for 2018

Today, the amount of debt has decreased significantly, which is due to the fulfillment by the Russian Federation of obligations from the times of the USSR. Nevertheless, statistics demonstrate the situation that with a sharp decrease in external debt, domestic debt has increased significantly.

Among the countries to which the Russian Federation must pay funds, as of 2018, the only creditor is South Korea. Russia's external debt currently amounts to $81 billion, of which $594 million are liabilities to South Korea.

Such a loan must be fully repaid by 2025. While for the rest of the debt a separate repayment schedule is provided.

Repayment schedule

Having found out how much Russia’s global debt is, it should be noted that the payment schedule and the total amount of debt were partly formed due to the difficult economic situation. You should also take into account the negative impact of sanctions, as well as the depreciation of the national currency.

This is confirmed by the sharp reduction in external public debt after foreign financial organizations were prohibited from lending to various structures of the Russian Federation. This made borrowing money extremely difficult. According to official data, the government plans to adhere to the following payment schedule:

The specified data is for informational purposes only, as it may be adjusted in connection with the early fulfillment by the Russian Federation of its obligations to creditors.

Costs of servicing public debt

External debt structure

The external debt of the Russian Federation has a complex structure, different parts of which are repaid unevenly. The most significant share among the external financial obligations of the Russian Federation consists of the following items:

  • debt to external creditors;
  • debts to multilateral creditors;
  • external bonds;
  • OVGVZ;
  • guarantees of the Russian Federation in foreign currency;
  • other debts.

Having understood the structure of such debt, it is advisable to note that despite a significant decrease in the volume of external debt in absolute terms, there is a deterioration in indicators in percentage terms. This is caused by several factors that have a significant impact on the economic indicators of the state.

Public debt is the sum of budget deficits accumulated over a certain period of time minus the positive budget balances available during this time. There are external and internal public debt.

Domestic debt is the state's debt to its population. In accordance with the law of the Russian Federation, the state internal debt of the Russian Federation is the debt obligations of the government of the Russian Federation, expressed in the currency of the Russian Federation, to legal entities and individuals. Debt obligations can take the form of: loans received by the government of the Russian Federation; government loans carried out through the issue of securities on behalf of the government of the Russian Federation; other debt obligations guaranteed by the government of the Russian Federation.

External public debt is debt owed to foreign countries, organizations and individuals. This debt places the greatest burden on the country, as it must give away valuable goods, provide certain services in order to pay the interest on the debt and the debt itself.

The credit history of Russia began in 1769, when Catherine II made the first loan in Holland. Since that time, Russia has systematically resorted to large-scale external borrowing.

The main goal of the policy pursued by the Russian government in the field of debt management was to streamline relations with external creditors of the former USSR and establish new payment schedules for its debts, taking into account the real possibilities of servicing these obligations.

The bulk of the Russian Federation’s external debt arose when Gorbachev’s team set a course for “socialist acceleration of the country’s economic development” through Western loans. The Soviet Union was known in the world as the most careful payer of its debts, and we were very willingly lent billions of dollars “for perestroika.” Quite a few of those dollars were buried in the ground of government long-term construction projects, some of them were spent on the purchase of machinery and equipment, including much needed ones. “Social acceleration,” however, by and large did not work out; the debts remained.

In 1991, during the existence of the USSR, two agreements were concluded, according to which the then-union republics assumed joint responsibility for the debts of the Soviet Union. The concept of joint responsibility meant that each republic individually and collectively repaid the debts of the Soviet Union. Thus, each republic had to pay its share of the debt, but if someone refused to pay, then all the other republics would pay off that debt.

However, after the collapse of the USSR, the following situation arose: in fact, only Russia was actually capable of paying off its part of the debt. But everyone expressed their readiness to divide the assets of the former USSR. However, the division of assets would be a lengthy and very expensive undertaking. That is why we came up with the “zero option” scheme, according to which Russia became the legal successor of the USSR in terms of the foreign assets of the Union, but at the same time assumed obligations to repay the entire debt of the USSR.

Thus, by declaring itself the legal successor of the USSR, Russia acquired, among other things, its foreign debts. And then she herself began to borrow debts from the West.

What is the severity of the debt burden in Russia? To assess this indicator, we will use international standards and consider the three most commonly used relative debt ratios: the ratio of debt to GDP, the ratio of debt to exports, and the ratio of cost of service to exports.

According to one of the criteria (external debt to GDP), Russia exceeds the critical level, and according to the rest, it is approaching them.

Acute budgetary problems and the inability to refinance domestic debt at reasonable interest rates forced the Government of the Russian Federation to increasingly rely on external sources of borrowing. In addition, it is necessary to note the sharp deterioration in the balance of payments since the beginning of 1998, caused both by the extremely unfavorable situation in the world commodity and financial markets and by the sharp increase in payments on investment income in favor of non-residents by all sectors of the Russian economy. As a result, virtually the only source of maintaining balance of payments balance was the growth of official external debt.

Today, Russia's external debt can be conditionally divided into six components: loans from international organizations and restructured debt of the USSR; loans and borrowings from Russian banks; loans and borrowings from Russian companies; domestic foreign currency bonds; Eurobonds and subfederal external loans and credits.

Russia now deals with three groups of creditors: official creditors, mainly members of the Paris Club, commercial banks, or the London Club, and, finally, commercial firms and banks formerly members of the Tokyo Club.

An increase in external debt is more dangerous for the economy compared to an increase in its internal debt.

The growth of external debt entails real negative economic consequences: payments of interest or principal to foreigners cause the transfer of a certain part of the real product abroad, and the growth of external debt also reduces the international authority of the country.

The country’s stable position in the international capital market and timely fulfillment of debt obligations help strengthen its international authority and provide an additional influx of investment on more favorable terms. In addition, confidence in its currency increases and foreign trade relations are strengthened. On the other hand, an external debt crisis can become a serious negative factor of not only economic but also political significance. Exorbitantly high payments from the state budget for debts divert funds from financing social, economic, defense and other government programs.

There is a need for debt management. Public debt management refers to the totality of government actions to repay and regulate the amount of public credit, as well as to attract new borrowed funds.

Repayment of government loans and interest payments are made either from budget funds or by refinancing-issuing new loans in order to pay off bondholders of the old loan. Public debt management techniques include conversion and consolidation. Conversion is a change in the terms of the loan relating to profitability, that is, a decrease or increase in the amount of interest paid on loans. Consolidation is a change in the terms of a loan related to their terms.

The purpose of external debt management:

1. Economic: minimizing the cost of attracted external loans, improving refinancing conditions and/or re-registration of debt, reducing the overall costs of servicing external debt, increasing the efficiency of using attracted resources. This group also includes budgetary goals, such as smoothing unevenness in tax revenues and financing current budget expenditures;

2. Political: maintaining the stability of the functioning of the political system;

3. Social: timely financing of social programs, ensuring social stability;

4. Ensuring national security: an excessively high burden of external debt and untimely payments on it create serious difficulties in the functioning of the national economy, undermine the possibility of pursuing an independent economic policy and, as a result, is a factor that can seriously affect the economic security of the country. In theory, this phenomenon is called the “vice of dependence”; in practice, this means the actual bankruptcy of the country.

The main goal of the policy pursued by the Russian government in the field of foreign debt management was to streamline relations with external creditors of the former USSR and establish new payment schedules for its debts, taking into account the real possibilities of servicing these obligations. The negotiation process between the Russian Federation and the creditor community began immediately after the collapse of the USSR at the end of 1991. We can roughly identify five main stages in Russia’s relations with its creditors.

The first stage, starting from the beginning of 1992, included preliminary negotiations, during which the Russian government was granted short-term three-month deferments on external debt payments. The receipt of the first loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ($1 billion) can also be attributed to this period. In January 1992, the government entered into a framework agreement to revise the calendar plan for servicing and repaying debts to the Paris Club creditors.

During the second stage - from 1993 to 1995 - Russia revised the above payment plan associated with debt service between December 1991 and the end of 1995.

The beginning of the third stage can be considered April 1996, when the agreements with the Paris Club were supplemented by a comprehensive agreement, according to which Russia must in total (including preliminary agreements) pay the creditors of the Paris Club an amount of about 38 billion dollars. Of these, 45% must be paid over the next 25 years until 2020, and the remaining 55%, which included the most short-term obligations to members of the Paris Club, over 21 years. At the same time, the restructured face value of the debt must be repaid in increasing payments starting from 2002.

Around the same period, negotiations were held to restructure the debt to members of the London Club. In 1996, an agreement was concluded with the London Club on the restructuring of the USSR's debts to banks on terms that provided for repayment of the debt over 25 years.

The beginning of the fourth stage can be considered the end of 1996, when the world's leading rating agencies began assigning credit ratings to Russia. The fairly high rating that foreign experts gave to Russia contributed to the growth of optimistic sentiment about the development of the Russian economy. However, excessive enthusiasm, partly provoked by the ratings, led to the fact that in the subsequent period there was a rapid increase in debt on the part of both government authorities and the corporate and banking sectors. In the absence of a public debt management system, this led to the formation of unreasonably high peak loads on the federal budget, in particular in 1998-1999.

The law of the Russian Federation adopted in 1992 divided public debt into external and internal.

Russia's public debt for 2018 is divided into external and internal loans, respectively, with the currency of the obligations incurred. A loan in foreign currency refers to the external debt of the Russian Federation, and a loan in rubles refers to the internal debt.

According to Article 6 of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, the external debt of the state is the country’s obligation arising in foreign monetary units.

The state external debt of the Russian Federation includes the following obligations:

  1. federal authorities;
  2. federal subjects.

The Central Bank is the official source of information on the structure, history, current status and payment plan.

Lenders are usually:

  • other states;
  • private foundations;

Historical data

In fact, the State Debt appeared in 1991 after the collapse of the Union of Secular Socialist Republics, when the Russian Federation, as a successor, took over all debt obligations.

Due to the severe economic crisis in the 1990s after the collapse of the USSR, Russia practically did not repay its loans and took out new ones. The volume of external debt of the Russian Federation grew until 1998 and amounted to $188 billion. After the peak and end of the crisis in 1998 and overcoming the default, the size of official payments began to decline (see).

In the early 2000s. The Russian Federation began to strengthen its economic position thanks to rising oil prices.

Already in the summer of 2006, as a result of lengthy negotiations, the Paris Club loan was prematurely repaid - $22.5 billion.

By 2008, due to available foreign loans, the debt had risen again to 0.5 Tron. $.

In 2013, loans from the USSR were repaid. A total of $3.65 billion was paid to the following countries: Montenegro, Czech Republic and Finland.

The next maximum was reached in 2014 – more than $0.7 trillion. After which it began to decline quite quickly due to sanctions.

At the end of 2014 - beginning of 2015. over $0.1 trillion were paid out in just a few months. Which ultimately led to a currency crisis and a depreciation of the ruble.

In the summer of 2017, the Soviet Union's national debt in the amount of $125.2 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina was repaid.

Russian external debt chart

The country's total debt is declining

According to data at the beginning of this year, the amount of total debt fell to 33% of the Gross Domestic Product from 40% previously established. This level is moderate according to the annual report of the Central Bank.

Payment schedule for this year

Russia's external debt for 2018 should decrease by $50 billion:

  • In the first quarter, $21.4 billion was paid.
  • At the end of the second quarter, the payment will reach $30 billion, but the final figure has not yet been announced.

Due to the introduction of sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation, the amount of debt in digital terms is decreasing, but in relative terms it is growing. Experts believe that this can be explained by a decrease in GDP, a fall in the ruble exchange rate and a reduction in energy exports due to a decrease in world prices for them.

year: reasons, counter-sanctions, significance for the economy

According to experts, the growth dynamics of Russia's external debt is not critical in relation to the debt of some other world powers.

According to forecasts, Russia's external public debt for 2018-2019 will continue to grow. Despite the payments planned for this period.

Russia's GDP and external debt: According to relative indicators, public debt is approximately 5-10% of total GDP, this figure is lower only for 4 world powers.

Structure of Russia's external debt for 2018

Russia's external debt in 2018 consists of the following categories:

  • External public debt;
  • Commitments to members of the Paris Club;
  • Debt payments to creditors who are not members of the Paris Club;
  • Obligations to former states of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance;
  • Commercial loans of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;
  • Obligations to financial international organizations;
  • Repayment of Eurobond loans;
  • Bonded loans;
  • Payments under OVGVZ.

The structure of the external debt of the Soviet Union includes:

  • Installment contracts;
  • Medium-term or short-term loans on a commercial basis, which are evidenced by bills and drafts (securities);
  • Bills and drafts with payments for bearers;
  • Collection is a banking transaction involving the transfer of money to the recipient from the payer through the bank. A fee is charged for performing this operation;
  • Irrevocable and revocable obligations, including bank letters of credit with installments;
  • Other arrangements related to authorization by resolution of governing bodies.

Almost all of the debt consists of Eurobond loans. Securities are Eurobonds that are issued in monetary units that differ from the state currency.

The Ministry of Finance reported that the external debt of the Russian Federation decreased after the borrowings of the Soviet Union were blocked. At this moment there is only one debt before South Korea. According to the agreements, it must be repaid by 2025.

On August 8, 2017, the Russian Federation fully paid off the debts of the USSR, paying over $125 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Over 10 years, Russia has forgiven $80,000,000,000 to debtor states. Among the countries whose debts were written off:

  • Cuba – $31.7 billion,
  • Iraq - 21.5,
  • Mongolia – 11.1,
  • Afghanistan – 11,
  • DPRK – 10,
  • Syria – 0.9,
  • Vietnam – 9.4,
  • African states, including: Angola, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Libya, were forgiven payments in the amount of more than 0.02 trillion dollars.

The Russian Federation has a debt to only one power - South Korea in the amount of $594 million.