The Technical Secretary of the Presidency Rafael Calderon said that it’s one thing to approve a government loan, another to release it. In an interview with Hoy newspaper he said politics more than real concern lies behind the analysis of the debt passed by Congress. “We are fully aware of how delicate the matter is and we know our limits,” he said. Calderon is part of a commission recently appointed by the Executive Branch to create a profile of the foreign debt. “I think it is important to point out that this government has reduced the foreign debt by at least US$175 million. That is, the government received a foreign debt of US$3.6 billion and the present debt is US$3.4 billion and at the end of the year it will probably be lower,” he said. He said that of all the loans passed by the Congress, the government has only released US$50 million this year. He said the government has paid more than US$200 million on the foreign debt. He said that the approval of US$515 million loans in the past 12 months (not including the sovereign bonds) does not mean that the government owes US$515 million. He said that 60% of the projects approved or in the process of being approved by Congress are for 10-30 year credits. He said that 33% of the projects were inherited from previous governments.
