Executive Summary
Foreign obligations declared by the private sector totaled US$ 60,739 million2 as of December 31, 2016. Of that total, US$ 59,824 million corresponded to the capital position, while US$ 915 million were for accrued interest.
Continuing with the evolution observed in recent quarters, during the fourth quarter of 2016 the external debt of the private sector showed a fall of US$ 1,994 million compared to the third quarter of 2016 and a reduction of US$ 5,014 million in the year-on-year comparison, as a result of a process of commercial deleveraging (fall of about US$ 8,300 million) together with an increase, although of a smaller amount, in financial debt.
The debt for advances and pre-financing of exports of goods, which reached a stock of US$ 5,673 million as of 12/31/16, reflected a fall in the quarter of US$ 532 million (9%) and US$ 803 million (12%) in the year.
Debt for imports of goods reached US$ 18,654 million at the end of 2016, with a fall in the quarter of US$ 538 million (3%) and a decrease of US$ 4,294 million (19%) in year-on-year terms. This behavior was observed in almost all sectors of economic activity and responds to the process of commercial deleveraging initiated with the normalization of access to the foreign exchange market.
Foreign obligations for services totaled a stock of US$ 7,622 million as of 12/31/16, registering a fall in the quarter of US$ 184 million (2%) and accumulating a year-on-year decrease of US$ 2,852 million (27%), continuing the trend of commercial deleverage.
As of 31.12.16, external financial debt reached a stock of US$ 27,894 million, representing 46% of the total external debt of the private sector, increasing by US$ 3,291 million in the year, mainly due to the increase in debt bond issuances of US$ 3,332 million due to improvements in the conditions of access to the international financial market.
The total of fresh funds raised during 2016 resulted in an all-time record, reaching about US$ 7,600 million. Of that total, US$ 3,832 million were instrumented through the issuance of debt securities, registering an increase of 67% compared to the previous year. An improvement was observed both in the average rate agreed and in the diversity of sectors that attracted financing abroad.
