By Xinhua,
Sofia : A payment of 360 million U.S. dollars of Iraq’s debt to Bulgaria was finalized on Wednesday, the Bulgarian Finance Ministry said in a press release.
Bulgaria is the first country which has reached agreement on a lump-sum cash settlement of its receivables from Iraq.
Approximately one-third of the proceeds represent principal repayments, and two-thirds are due and overdue interest payments.
The debt settlement negotiations began back in September 2005. On Nov. 8, 2007, the Bulgarian government approved a bilateral agreement with Iraq settling 1,860 million U.S. dollars Bulgarian receivables (1,259 million dollars principal and 601 million dollars interest accrued until 2004), arising from intergovernmental agreements and protocols concluded before 1989.
After additional charging of penalty interest and a direct payment coefficient, the Iraqi side agreed to an updated amount of its debt totaling 3,510 million dollars, and the Bulgarian side agreed to a direct payment coefficient of 10.25 cents per dollar, the press release said.