Jakarta –
Debt has been a hot topic of discussion lately. What is discussed is not debt in banks, neighbors let alone borrowing, but state debt.
Starting from the statement of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) which warned about the government’s ability to pay debts. BPK assesses government debt and interest costs have exceeded GDP growth. In the future, the government’s ability to pay debts is said to be decreasing.
To add a reference, here are five countries that have been in debt until they finally went bankrupt. Yes, bankrupt, like a company that can’t pay its debts.
1. Greece
On June 30, 2015 Greece was declared bankrupt. The reason is because it failed to pay its debts which totaled 360 billion euros (Rp 5,000 trillion). Greece’s government debt-to-GDP ratio reached 155.3% in May 2015
Greece’s mounting debt has been accumulating since joining the European Union in the early 2000s. In fact, Greece is not a big country, because the population is only about 11 million people, this is even lower than the population in West Java which reaches around 46 million people. About 16% of the Greek economy depends on the tourism sector.
Because of the large amount of Greek debt, investors stopped buying debt securities issued by the government of the land of the gods.
2. Argentina
This Tango country has at least twice failed to pay debt (default) namely in 2001 and 2014. In 2014 the creditors rejected the offer to negotiate the payment of the Argentine government debt.
The debt rating agency, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) at that time immediately positioned Argentina in the status of ‘Selective default’. The amount owed by Argentina to its creditors is more than US$ 1.3 billion.
Argentina should have made a US$ 539 million installment of the restructured bonds by 30 June 2014
Argentina also defaulted on its $100 billion debt in 2001 and had to undergo a restructuring program. As a consequence, the value of the bonds issued by Argentina was reduced by 70% of their true value
Nearly 92% of the holders of government bonds are willing to reduce the value of their debts. However, creditors from Capital and Aurelius Capital Management still demand that Argentina pay 100% of its debt of US$ 1.3 billion plus interest.
Last year in 2020, Argentina also had related problems debt. However, this time, Argentina reached an agreement with its main creditors to carry out restructuring or relief to pay the state debt of US$ 65 billion or around Rp. 942.5 trillion (in an exchange rate of Rp. 14,500).
Venezuela to Zimbabwe on the next page.
See also Video: BPK: 2020 State Budget Deficit Widens to IDR 947.7 Trillion of GDP
– .
