Cabo Verde’s (Cape Verde’s) public debt is “huge and excessive” but “not unsustainable,” said Finance Minister Olavo Correia, adding the government was working to reduce its value as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Inforpress news agency.

Figures released by weekly newspaper A Semana showed that Cabo Verde’s public debt increased from 200.013 billion Cape Verdean escudos (US$2.015 billion or 127.8% of GDP) in 2015 to 210.726 billion escudos (US$ 2.124 billion or 128.6% of GDP) by 2016.

The 2016 debt can be broken down into external debt in the amount of 158.210 billion Cape Verdean escudos (96.5% of GDP) and domestic debt of 52.516 billion Cape Verdean escudos (32.0% of GDP).

Domestic debt consists of Treasury Bonds (96.6%) and Other Loans (3.4%) and long-term foreign debt, in its entirety, can be broken down into multilateral (46.9%), bilateral (22.6%) and commercial (30.5%).

The Minister of Finance also told Inforpress that the archipelago’s public debt “is not unsustainable” and added that its reduction, as a percentage of GDP, involves “economic acceleration and further streamlining in selection of public investments.”

Correia also said that debt sustainability “is essential”, in order to have a more economic and stable fiscal framework, which in his view “is essential” for the growth of the Cape Verdean economy. (macauhub)