The Debt Management Office (the “DMO”) of the Ministry of Finance is mandated under Section 61 of the  Public Debt Management Act, 2021 (the “Act”), passed by Parliament in March and enacted in July, to prepare and publish public debt statistical bulletins (“PDSB”), no later than thirty calendar days after the end of each quarter of the fiscal year.  

In keeping with this mandate, the December 2021 PDSB represents the second centralized collection of and dedicated publication on public debt statistics in The Bahamas by the DMO.     

As prescribed in the Act, the content of the report includes:

• the outstanding stock of all public sector debt;
• the size and currency composition of the public sector debt;
• the interest rate mix of the public sector debt and 
• the maturity profile of the public sector debt.

The central Government’s debt stock aggregated $10,317.9 million at end-December 2021, for respective gains of $230.9 million from end-September 2021 and $900.0 million from end-December 2020. The outstanding debt represented an estimated 96.4% of GDP at end-December 2021, compared with an estimated 98.1% at end-September and 95.1% at end-December 2020.

The debt stock of the public sector [i.e., central Government, Agencies and Government Business enterprises (GBEs)] aggregated an estimated $11,636.3 million at end-December 2021—a gain of $207.6 million over end-September 2021 and $822.4 million over end-December 2021.

Dissemination of timely, consistent, comprehensive, reliable and internationally comparable public debt statistics represents a key element of the Government’s commitment to promote accountability and transparency in debt management activities. It also contributes to informed decision making of domestic policy makers for sustainable macroeconomic growth, and is an invaluable source of information for international organizations, investors and other stakeholders who have an interest in the management of public debt in The Bahamas. 

The Ministry invites and encourages the public to visit the national Budget Website (www.bahamasbudget.gov.bs) to view the various statistical reports available to the public.