[Tee tiong huat]

Russia external debt has been falling steadily and reached $326.6bn in December 2023, compared with $322.3bn in the previous quarter and $383.6bn at the end of 2022. It could pay the entire amount off tomorrow – in cash. (chart)

Kremlin has been paying off its external debt. Low external debt means Russia doesn’t need to tap international capital markets so is not vulnerable to any sort of sanctions on bond issues. Russia’s strong current account surplus, was up to $5.2bn in February from $4.5bn in January, thanks to high oil prices, Russia fund itself easily on profit. (chart)

At same time gross international reserves have been rising and are now hovering around $600bn at the end of the first quarter. Half of these reserves are frozen. About $150bn are in monetary gold (up from $135bn pre-war) and the rest in yuan.

Even counting out frozen funds, Russia can cover its external debt dollar for dollar with cash, whereas everyone in West is massively leveraged, including Ukraine where debt-to-GDP ratio is almost at 100%.

It is these rock-solid fundamentals – no one else in world has even remotely similar metrics – which is the essence of Putin’s Fiscal Fortress.
https://www.intellinews.com/russia-could...sh-319067/