Financial institutions and non-financial institutions residents held 17.3% and 3.3% of public debt last year respectively, Eurostat said in a statement on its website. Cyprus’ government debt is broken down to 32.7% debt securities and 67.3% loans.

Denmark had the lowest ratio of foreign-held government debt last year with below 30%, followed by Sweden and Luxembourg with over 29% and almost 36% respectively, Eurostat said.

In 2016, Latvia, Lithuania and Austria had the second, third and fourth highest ratio of foreign held debt with 72%, 69% and 71% respectively. The data have no information on Greece, the EU and euro area average.

According to the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO), in December 2016, the central government’s debt was broken down to 22% foreign held bonds, 33% loans from the European Stability Mechanism, 5% from the International Monetary Fund, 13% from the Russian Federation and 6% to the Central Bank of Cyprus while a further 7% represented loans from various official bodies such as the European Investment Bank.

Domestic bonds, retail bonds, treasury bills and private loans made up 6%, 3% and 2% respectively, according to the PDMO.

Source: Cyprus Mail