Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa said that the public sector debt with private banking increased 967.6% during the past government, as reported in El Caribe. The government debt with commercial banks increased from US$661 million in 2000 to US$7.06 billion in 2004, according to Bengoa. He said that the DR has international financial obligations for US$10.9 billion, of which 64.6% (US$7.06 billion) has been contracted with private banks, sovereign bondholders or suppliers, and 35.6% (US$3.86 billion) with government or multilateral lending organizations. Bengoa spoke up to dispute statements by former Finance Minister Rafael Calderon who had said that the past government had taken on debt with governments and multilateral organizations, and not with private banking, as reported in Hoy newspaper. Bengoa stressed that at the end of the first Fernandez government (1996-2000), the foreign debt was US$3.66 billion, of which only 18% had been borrowed from commercial banks, and 82% (US$3.01 billion) was held with multilateral organizations and governments. The Mejia government with the support of the PRD-majority Congress contracted the loans with commercial banks at high interest rates.