Private commercial external debt dropped slightly by 0.86 per cent in the past year to US$ 12.17 billion from $12.28 billion in 2017.
Central bank statistics also showed that this is first time in the last nine years private external borrowing declined.
Thus the ratio of private external borrowing stood at 22 per cent in the last year which was 24.40 per cent in 2017.
Public sector external borrowing, however, increased by $4.94 billion or 13.01 per cent to $42.98 billion in 2018 which was $ 38.03 billion in 2017.
As a result, country’s total external debt increased by $4.84 billion or 9.62 per cent to $55.15 billion in 2018 which was $50.31 billion.