The Diplomat
The Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN) has reported that it has cancelled the last instalment of the foreign debt it owed to the Compañía Española de Seguros de Créditos para la Exportación (CESCE), which dated back to 2001.
he Nicaraguan issuing bank explained on Tuesday that “the BCN’s initial debt totalled 541.1 million dollars (around 494 million euros), on which the Spanish agency granted a reduction of 399.1 million (around 364 million euros) within the framework of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (known as the HIPC Initiative)”, reports Efe.
That is to say, the monetary entity added, after the cancellation of 399.1 million dollars, the Central Bank paid 141.7 million dollars corresponding to the debt balance, plus 58.3 million dollars in interest, for a total of 200 million dollars.
“With this debt cancellation, the BCN demonstrates its firm commitment to meet its financial obligations on time,” the bank concluded.
Nicaragua closed the first quarter of 2023 with an external debt of 14,831.9 million dollars, equivalent to 94.6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) (15,671.6 million dollars), according to BCN data.
Of the total indebtedness at the end of March, 8,216 million dollars corresponded to the public sector (55.4 % of the total), and 6,615.9 million dollars to the private sector (44.6 % of the total), according to the monetary authority’s report.
