Add it all up and Russia's foreign debt service comes to $11 billion a year, equivalent to 13% of its exports.
Local economists say that Mr Roche's estimates of both the current-account deficit and foreign debt-servicing needs are much too high, and that he grossly underestimated foreign direct investment.By most calculations, South Africa is nowhere near the pickle that Thailand or Malaysia were in before their crashes.
Aside from the violence that turned its cities into ghost towns and cost the lives of as many as 200,000 people, Algeria endured massive unemployment and a colossal foreign debt, the servicing of which ate up three-quarters of export earnings.That debt has now dwindled almost to nothing, as foreign reserves, boosted by a windfall of cash from oil and gas sales, have mounted beyond $120 billion.
In addition, the value of foreign currency bonds which matured in the remainder of 2008 was only $600 million, and foreign currency debt service in 2009 was only $215 million, well within the government's ability to pay.
But Rosneft, for one, also has big foreign debts to service or redeem.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's foreign debt must be serviced.
If it falls, servicing foreign debt will become even trickier.The IMF, with which Ukraine agreed a bail-out deal in March, has been clear about what is needed to make the country's debts sustainable.
Right now, for Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea, the cost, at current interest rates, of servicing foreign debt is 5% to 10% of GDP.
