The balance of Moldova’s external debt on June 30 this year was US$775.1 million, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Deputy Minister of Finance Nina Lupan, foreign payments of US$31.8 million (355.5 million lei) were made during the first half of this year, in accordance with the schedule. Out of this sum, US$22.5 million went to service the basic debt, while US$9.3 million – to pay interest on foreign loans. The internal state debt on June 30 was 4.22 billion lei. It was fully composed of state securities, including converted securities of 2.21 billion lei, securities issued by auction of 1.7 billion lei and securities placed by subscription of 300 million lei. Since the start of the year, the internal debt had increased by 711.7 million lei (20.3%) following the rise in the volume of securities issued by auction and placed by subscription. A sum of 340 million lei was used to pay the internal debt over six months. This is 92.8% of the sum planned for this period. 230 million lei of the total sum went to pay interest on converted securities, while 119 million lei to pay interest and coupons on securities issued by auction. The average weighted interest rates on securities in the first half of this year was 14.91%, down 2.6% from the beginning of the year. The rates of interest in June were 12.2% on average.