PARAMARIBO — The total national debt of Suriname as of June 2026 amounts to 4.65 billion US dollars and not 8.7 billion US dollars as recently appeared in the media. Charlene Soentik, Administrator General, said on Friday that the Public Debt Office will continue to monitor and coordinate the debt to return to the legally established debt-GDP ratio of 60 percent. “That is our job and we do it,” said the ag. She immediately refers to this the website of the National Debt Bureauwhere all information can be found.
According to Soentik, the debt is built up from drawings from the committed loans. “So every draw becomes part of the debt. So draws up to the month in question, repayments up to the month in question and any exchange rate differences,” the ag explains. The domestic debt currently amounts to 0.76 billion US dollars, which converts to SRD 28.49 billion. The foreign debt amounts to 3.9 billion US dollars and, converted into SRD, 146.79 billion. These two amounts total SRD 175.28 billion or 4.65 billion US dollars.
“We have different currency components and associated exchange rates in our debt portfolio, especially within external debt, that we have to take into account”
The National Debt Office is forced to comply with the National Debt Act when looking at the ratio of the current debt to the debt ceiling. In accordance with this law, the national debt is expressed in the gross domestic product (GDP) of the General Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The AG emphasizes that the GDP of the ABS is always published one year later. To date, the GDP of the ABS for the year 2024 is still being worked on. “So the GDP for 2025 should be released next September.” She further indicates that the GDP for 2024 that is currently used is equal to SRD 146.55 billion. The total debt ratio based on GDP of ABS – still for the year 2024 – totals 119.6 percent. This is 19.4 percent domestically and 100.2 percent abroad.
The national debt is reported monthly to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS) and the Ministry of Finance and Planning. For the IMF, a GDP is used, which the international financial institution itself publishes. The Administrator General makes it clear that this GDP does relate to the year 2026, with a total value of SRD 235.2 billion. Based on the IMF GDP, the total debt is 74.5 percent, of which domestic debt is 12.1 percent and foreign debt is 62.4 percent. “This is also still based on the debt status as of June 2026,” the ag explains. The debt-GDP ratio is also reported based on the GDP of the Suriname Planning Bureau and is used for the projections in Suriname.
The AG says that every loan agreement has a specific term. The term refers to the repayment. The terms therefore vary per loan. In accordance with the National Debt Act (referring to the parent law of 2002, Article 1), a debt can have a maximum term of thirty years.
When asked what the forecasts are for the national debt in the medium term, the AG says that based on the law, where the national debt is expressed in GDP ratio, this depends on a number of economic indicators. One of these is the price development. “We have different currency components and associated exchange rates in our debt portfolio, especially within external debt, that we need to take into account,” the Administrator General said.
