Belarus, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine, for example, each owe more than 20 percent of their long-term external debt to private creditors. Debt indicators improve slightly. The region's average ratio of debt to exports fell from 130.7 percent in 1995 to an estimated 126.3 percent in 1996. Total debt service dropped from 13.8 percent of exports in 1995 to an estimated 11.3 percent in 1996. Most of this increase reflected greater private flows to Greece and Turkey.
Official flows rise sharply.
Net private flows hit a new high. Private nondebt flows remain high. The 1995 figure reflected large-scale privatization in Hungary. Equity issues in support of privatization programs in the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, and the Russian Federation accounted for the surge. Composition of private flows changes significantly.