Russia pays debts to IMF ahead of schedule

Russia has made a regular debt payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Th amount of the payment is $27.2m and EUR28.07m, which is equal to 41.67m SDRs. A representative of the Finance Ministry of Russia told RBC that the payment had been made ahead of schedule, since the official payment date is January 12, which is Sunday.

This payment is the second of five payments to be made this month. In total, Russia is to repay about $2bn (1.56bn SDRs) to the IMF in 2003. The total amount that Russia is due to repay to foreign creditors in 2003 is estimated at $17.2bn. In 2002 Russia repaid about $1.5bn (1.2bn SDRs) to the IMF. The sum of the Russian debt to the IMF reached about $7.5bn as of the beginning of 2002.