The State is indebted on several fronts

The public sector accumulates external debt in each agency it administers. The commitments to pay in municipalities, local governments and public companies, -without including the debt that directly contracted by president Rafael Correa- amount to 2,516.2 million dollars.

The amount, presented in the report of the Ministry of Finance for external debt up to January of this year, shows that the public company Petroecuador is the one that registers more credits. Until last month, it had accounts payable that exceeded 1.441 million dollars. That is, 57.27% of the total foreign debt.

Daily Expreso consulted these data with the state oil company last week. Until the close of this edition, however, there was no official response.

Petroecuador’s Transparency Report, with a cut to January, shows that at least $ 1 billion of that debt corresponds to an “external investment loan” of the US group Noble Americas Corp. signed in 2014. The loan has a term of five years (it expires in 2019) and, until this year, 742 million dollars have been disbursed. That is, the oil company still has to receive 257.9 million.

The two reports do not reveal more details of the debt nor the origin of the other 441 million dollars. The only thing they say is that they will be paid with Petroecuador’s budget.