As announced by FinMin, government's external debt as of May 1 amounted to USD 49.84bn, inching by 0.06% m/m and declining by 1.8% ytd. In EUR terms external debt went down by 1.9% m/m and 0.5% ytd amounting to EUR 38.14bn. Most of the debt accounted for Eurobonds borrowings that stood at USD 34.27bn. As of end of 2012 government’s external debt increased by 41.8% in USD terms and 38.6% in EUR, according to FinMin. According to the previous reports, drafted 2013-2015 budget included annual Eurobond issues worth USD 7bn.

At the end of March 2012 FinMin issued USD 2bn worth of 5-year bonds at coupon rate of 3.25%, USD 2bn worth of 10-year Eurobonds at a rate of 4.5% and USD 3bn worth of 30-year bonds at a rate of 5.625%. With this Eurobond issue FinMin covered all the planned foreign borrowings of USD 7bn for last year. This year a Eurobond placement is anticipated in the beginning of H2/13.  

Domestic debt exceeds external debt, with government's domestic debt in securities (not including state guarantees) increasing by 14.6% to RUB 4.064tn (USD 133bn) as of January 1 2013, according to FinMin data. The growth rate of the indicator accelerated towards the end of the year as compared to about 5.4% ytd in Jan-May 2012. As of end of 2010 government's domestic debt in securities went up by 34% ytd to RUB 2.46tn, as of end of 2009 by 40% to about RUB 1.5tn. This makes almost triple domestic debt growth in the past three years.