The Samoa Government's total outstanding debt for FY2021/22 stands at WST$948.4 million, though latest data showed a 5.6 per cent drop when compared to the last financial year.

Details of the debts were part of statistics on the Government's finances which were published by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics on 8 September 2022. 

The S.B.S. report said total Government outstanding debt in FY2021/22 amounted to $948.4 million, but it has decreased by 5.6 per cent (or $56.0 million) when compared to the previous FY2020/21’s recorded debt of $1.0 billion. 

Out of the outstanding loan amount, 99.8 per cent (or $946.8 million) was sourced from external debt with both bilateral and multilateral partners with the remaining 0.2 per cent ($1.6 million) owed to domestic institutions.

"Multilateral loans amounted to $485.4 million declining by 5.9 per cent (or $30.3 million) compared to the $515.7 million debt in the previous FY2020/21," the S.B.S. report reads. 

"The majority of multilateral loans taken out by the Government have been acquired from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, with respective compositions to total multilateral loans of 57.6 per cent and 38.1 per cent. 

"All loan balances acquired from multilateral institutions have decreased compared to its balances recorded in the previous financial year."

In terms of loans that were taken from Samoa's bilateral partners, the S.B.S. report said the total stood at $461.4 million in FY2021/22.

"Loans granted based on Bilateral Agreement such as those with the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Japan (JICA) totalled $461.4 million in FY2021/22. 

"Of this amount, loans from the P.R.C. amounted to $394.0 million and $67.3 million was from JICA. Both loans decreased by 2.2 per cent (or $9.0 million) and 17.0 per cent ($13.8 million) respectively when compared to the corresponding year of FY 2020/21."

The S.B.S. report said the total outstanding domestic debt stood at $1.6 million which decreased by 64.5 per cent (or $2.9 million) when compared to the balance of FY2020/21.

As for grants that the Samoa Government received from foreign donors, the S.B.S. report said the total stood at $97.7 million in June 2022.

"Grants received from foreign donors stood at $97.7 million in June 2022. It increased by 73.7% (or $41.5 million) compared to June 2021 contributing 35.2 per cent to total revenue," the S.B.S. report said. 

"This is the second highest amount of grant recorded since the start of the series with June 2020 being the exception with a recorded total of $105.7 million."

Other revenue generated $28.5 million decreasing by 7.6 per cent (or $2.3 million) in June 2022 when compared to the same quarter of the previous year, stated the S.B.S. report. 

Conversely, it increased by 47.3 per cent (or $9.1 million) compared to March 2022. Instrumental to its performance is the decline in administrative fees generated from the sales of goods and services, which went down by 89.5 per cent (or $16.1 million) when compared to the June 2021 quarter.

The data that the S.B.S. used for its report were sourced from the Bureau as well as the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Samoa.