Public debt stand at N4.193 trillion, external debt $28.4bn.

Provisional data on fiscal operations of the Federal Government in 2001 indicated that a deficit of N221.1 billion or 4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) was recorded.Government’s public debt during the year also stood at N4.193 trillion while external debt stood at $28.4 billion.

The deficit, according to the 2001 Annual Report of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released at the weekend, was much higher than the N103.8 billion or 2.1 per cent of GDP recorded in the preceding year and the budgeted deficit of N201.5 billion or 3.7 per cent of GDP for the year.

The apex bank said that the deficit was financed entirely from domestic sources, through the use of excess crude proceeds accumulated in the preceding year as well as the issuance of treasury bills.

According to the CBN, the retained revenue of the Federal Government amounted to N797 billion, comprising its share of the Federation Account (N530.7 billion), value added tax (N13.4 billion), independent revenue (N44.4 billion), share of Reserve Account (N117 billion), and privatisation proceeds (37.8 billion).

The report also disclosed that the aggregate expenditure of the Federal Government totalled N1.018 trillion, representing a 45.2 per cent increase over the expenditure in the preseding year. It also exceeds the budgeted total expenditure by 8.7 per cent.

CBN added that the higher expenditure level reflected increased personnel and overhaed costs over the budget targets.

It says total expenditure consisted of recurrent expenditure of N579.3 billion and capital expenditure of N438.7 billion.

Recurrent expenditure was utilised as follows: transfers (45.9 per cent), administration (31.2 per cent), social and community services (13.7 per cent), and economic services (9.2 per cent).

Capital expenditure was spent on economic services (59.2 per cent), transfers (17.4 per cent), social and community services (12.2 per cent) and administration (11.2 per cent).

Meanwhile, the total public and external debt oustanding as at the end of December 2001 stood at N4,193.3 billion and $28.4 billion respectively.

The public debt represents an increase of 4.9 per cent over the stock at the end of 2000 and as a proportion of the GDP, public debt outstanding was 76.4 per cent, down from 82.5 per cent in the preceding year.

The oustanding domestic debt stood at N1,017.0 billion, or 18.5 per cent of the GDP, represnting an increase of N118.7 billion, or 13.2 per cent over the level in 2000.

CBN said that the increase was dur to the issuance of Treasury Bills of N113 billion, at the end of the year to refinance outstanding Ways and Means Advances.

Also, the external debt represented an increase of $0.1 billion or 0.4 per cent, compared with $28.3 billion in the preceding year.

The distribution of the debt outstanding by creditors showed that the Paris Club accounted for the highest share of $22.1 billion or 77.9 per cent.

This was followed by multilateral holdings of $2.8 billion, or 9.9 per cent, the London Club $2 billion or 7.2 per cent, and promissory note holders $1.3 billion or 4.6 per cent. The balance of $121.2 million or 0.4 per cent was held by the non-Paris Club Bilateral creditors.

However, available statistics showed that debt service payments in 2001 amounted to $2.1 billion, representing an increase of $412 million or 2.4 per cent over actual debt service payments of $1.7 billion in 2000.

The breakdown of the payments showed that the sum of $1.9 billion was in respect of principal repayments, $153.2 million for interest payments while $18 million was for penalty interests and other charges.

This Day (Lagos), July 17, 2002