Abel: PNG’s debt has increased by 18 per cent

ALOTAU MP and former Treasurer Charles Abel says Papua New Guinea’s debt has increased from 35 per cent to 53 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the last three years.
Expressing his concern over the country’s financial position and recent comments made by Prime Minister James Marape, Abel was basing his claims on the final budget outcome (FBO) reports for 2019 and 2020 as published by the Department of Treasury. Though the 2021 FBO was not available, the budget deficit listed was K6.612billion.
“The prime minister stated (on Thursday) in Lae that the debt stock was K40 billion when he took Government in early 2019 and he also stated that the Marape government only added K10 billion to the debt stock in three years. However, this is not true,” Abel said.
“With due respect, I intervene here as I see numbers being mentioned to the public that seem to be moving further and further from the published truth,” he added.
With the 2021 final budget outcome yet to be published, he believes like the 2020 final outcome, the actual numbers will be much worse than that projected in the 2021 budget.
“In the 2019 FBO, after adjustments by the new government, debt stock was K33.7 billion after the K4.171 billion budget deficit,” he said.
“This put the 2018 debt stock at K29.496 billion or 35 per cent of the GDP, the debt stock before the current government took over, not K40billion.”
In 2019 the new government ran a budget deficit of K4.171 billion, in 2020 the deficit was K7.304 billion per the FBO of that year and in 2021, the budget deficit listed was K6.612 billion.
“If you add these three years of budget deficits under the new government, they equal to K18.087 billion and adding this to the 2018 debt stock of K29.946 billion, the total debt for PNG has increased from 35 per cent to 52 per cent of GDP in three years,” Abel said.
“The truth is that the debt stock when the Marape government took over was K29 billion and not K40 billion with a debt rate that has increased in three years (2019 – 2022) which was K18billion, not K10billion as claimed.”
Abel observed that the country’s debt stock was 35 per cent of the GDP at the end of 2018 and is now 52 per cent at the end of 2021 (subject to the actual FBO 2021 report).
He said the figures were from the Department of Treasury.