Listin Diario points out that while the foreign debt of the DR has been declining, due payments have been increasing. This is attributed to the short term borrowing in the previous government period of 1996-2000. At year’s end of 1996, at the start of the Fernandez administration, the foreign debt was US$3.8 billion. At the end of the Fernandez administration, the debt had been reduced to US$3.7 million. While the payment of the foreign debt was US$415 million in 1996, by 2000 annual payments that fall due had increased to US$569 million. This total is expected to continue to increase in 2001 and 2002 as the new administration takes on more short term debt. The newspaper analysed data presented in the document backing the issuing of US$500 million in sovereign bonds. See http://www.dr1.com/business/prospectus.pdf The newspaper says that economists point out that what is important is not what the country owes overall, but the payments that have to be made, that is the servicing of the debt (payments of interest plus capital).
