Executive Summary
The second quarter of 2017 was marked by lower volatility in international financial markets, with most stock market indicators maintaining their upward path, while yields on sovereign debt securities remained relatively constant until the end of June. Towards the fourth quarter, the fall in the risk indicators of external debt continued, reaching in October 2017 the lowest value observed since the end of 2007.
In this context, the private sector’s foreign obligations totaled US$ 63,853 million as of June 30, 2017, with an increase of US$ 1,390 in the quarter and US$ 1,540 million in relation to the same quarter of the previous year. Of the total external debt, US$ 62,969 million corresponded to the capital position, while US$ 883 million were accrued interest.
The increase in the external debt of the private sector in the second quarter of 2017 was explained both by a rise in commercial debt, by US$ 826 million, and by financial debt, by US$ 563 million.
The debt for advances and pre-financing of exports of goods reached US$ 5,595 million as of 30.06.17, exhibiting a fall of US$ 322 million, due to the decrease in pre-financing of exports by US$ 382 million.
In a context of increased level of imports of goods, the stock of debt for imports of goods reached US$ 19,012 million as of 30.06.17, with an increase in the quarter of US$ 1,041 million (6%), with the ratio of debt for imports with respect to imports in the last twelve months being around 34% (down 2 percentage points in relation to 30.06.16).
Foreign obligations for imports of services totaled a stock of US$ 8,182 million as of 30.06.17, showing a quarterly increase of US$ 143 million (2%) and almost unchanged compared to a year ago.
External financial debt reached US$ 30,272 million as of 06/30,17, a level that represented an increase of US$ 563 million compared to the previous quarter, basically driven by the increase in the stock of securities. In this context, fresh funds totaled about US$ 2,000 million in the second quarter of 2017, highlighting those instrumented through securities (70% of the total).
The average maturity of the private sector’s external debt as of June 30, 2017 stood at 2.29 years (quarterly increase of 0.2 years). It should be noted that there was an improvement in the profile of financial debt with respect to positions at the end of June 2016 and 2015, with maturities in the short term decreasing and those with longer maturities increasing.
