Debt stock of a country’s total public debt is issued at home and abroad and has not yet been repaid. Public debt can be repaid within one year (short-term debt), or after more than 1 year (long-term debt).

Open Data Albania, has conducted a research, based on data from the Bank of Albania, Ministry of Finance and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concerning the stock structure of the Albanian state debt by maturity in years. The data are cumulative, so the stock of debt of a year includes total debt issued by that year.

The stock of public debt for 2010 (the end of the third quarter) was about 715.5 billion Albanian Lek (ALL) or 58.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of this total, 250.1 billion ALL are short-term debt (35%), and 465.4 billion (65%) are long-term debt.

Over the years the share of total debt and short-term (according to original maturities) resulted as is shown below:
 

For 2010, debt data are up in the third quarter of 2010
Source: Bank of Albania, Ministry of Finance
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA)

As can be seen from the graph, in recent years the share of long-term debt versus short-term debt is increased evidently. This strategy reflects the Ministry of Finance for issuing long-term debt instruments.

Short-term debt consists of Treasury bills, while long-term debt consists mostly of bonds of 2 and 5-year period. In 2007 in Albania were issued for the first time 7-year bonds.  Domestic debt is nearly entirely short maturity and the average maturity is about 0.8 years, which means that he must refinanced within a year. External debt is more long term, since it includes soft loans taken in 2005 (although the weight of these loans in total external debt has been declining), and its average maturity is round 11 years. The Eurobond that was issued during 2010 has a maturity of 5 years.

We can say that on the one hand, the increase in long-term debt reduces the need for refinancing, but also increases costs, as long-term debt means paying higher interest rates than short-term debt due to lower liquidity

Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania
Contributed by: R.E