Certainly, for a couple of decades now we have not experienced the vicious circle of the risk of defaulting on the debt, distrust of international creditors and investors, capital flight and devaluation of the national currency. The Mexican government has complied fully and punctually with its commitments, and the doors of the financial markets have been open for new placements of government bonds, with evaluations by international rating agencies that up to now have not lowered the investment grade, which shows I show that we have a reasonable payment capacity and, it is worth saying, that we are a profitable country for financial institutions and investors.
Does this mean that foreign debt is no longer a problem for the Mexican economy? We can affirm that in the short term the government has the resources to meet its commitments with external creditors without having to resort to extraordinary measures, despite the rises in international interest rates to combat inflation, and in particularly the increases in revenues in the United States, our main creditor, decreed by the Federal Reserve so far this year. Recently, the Ministry of Finance reported that due to these increases the cost of debt in foreign currency doubled in the month of August in relation to the same period of the previous year.
Obviously, the increase in the cost of debt is not a matter attributable to the Mexican government. What, if we can attribute or, rather, recognize from the last public administrations, is a responsible and wise strategy to gradually convert most of the public debt into domestic debt, since this reduces vulnerability to fluctuations in the interest rate. exchange. According to the Center for Public Finance Studies (CEFP), at the end of September the total net public debt amounted to 13,505,000 million pesos, of which 68% was internal debt.
Another achievement that deserves recognition is the maintenance of a moderate level in the proportion represented by the total public debt in relation to the Gross Domestic Product, which is currently around 50%. In contrast, we find that in the United States this relationship is over 130%, in Brazil almost 100%, in China 68% and in Latin America the average is 80%.
It should also be noted that from 2019 to date, the Ministry of Finance has reported the early repurchase of nine external bonds, which has allowed the Mexican government to refinance 14,000 million dollars. As a result of these operations, the capital payments that were scheduled for 2025 will go from 4,240 to 1,280 million dollars.