Russia's public debt in 2020 increased by 5.42 trillion rubles, or 39.9 percent, and amounted to 18.99 trillion rubles, or 17.8 percent of GDP, a report about the execution of the federal budget for January-December 2020, published on the website of the Accounts Chamber said.
Russia's Ministry of Finance borrowed 5.18 trillion rubles domestically, which was 2.5 times more than was attracted in 2019 and became the maximum amount in more than 15 years. The repayment amounted to 0.58 trillion rubles.
The report specifies that in the pre-Covid year 2019, Russia's national debt grew by 7.8 percent, or 976 billion rubles, and its volume reached 13.56 trillion rubles, or 12.3 percent of GDP. External debt in foreign currency increased by $1.9 billion, or 3.5 percent, amounting to $56.8 billion. In 2021, the Ministry of Finance plans to borrow about 3.7 trillion rubles.
Earlier, it was reported that in December 2020, Russia increased its investments in the US national debt yet again, bringing their volume to $6.011 billion.
Russia has not been among the largest holders of the US public debt during the recent years. If in 2010 the volume of investments reached a maximum of 170 billion, then since April 2018, under the threat of sanctions, Moscow decided to get rid of US government bonds as much as possible. In February last year, Russia's possession of US government bonds was evaluated at $12.58 billion, which was twice as much as today.