A report on public debt by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) indicates that at the end of the first half of the year Mozambique had a total stock of externally contracted public debt of over 10,215 million dollars, a reduction of 2.9% compared to the first quarter.

Of this total, reports Lusa citing the same report (MEF), 52.1% corresponded to external public debt contracted with multilateral creditors, worth a total of 5,326 million dollars, an increase of 6.5% compared to the first quarter.

However, the report indicates that only 3,045 million dollars correspond to funding from the International Development Association, part of the World Bank group.

Bilateral creditors account for 39% of the total external public debt, which at the end of June amounted to 3,988 million dollars, almost 1% less than at the end of March.

China alone accounted for 15.8% of all Mozambique's external public debt, totaling more than 1,616 million dollars, unchanged from the first quarter, while Portugal accounted for 4.4% of the total, worth 452.3 million dollars, a reduction of 4.7% in the space of three months.

Other bilateral creditors of Mozambique's external public debt include Libya, with 253.3 million dollars, Angola, with 61.4 million dollars, Brazil, with 47.4 million dollars, and Russia, with almost 56 million dollars, according to the report.