Bulgaria finished paying in advance its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 24.

The last installment is worth 204.8 million leva, Finance Ministry said as quoted by Bulgarian National Radio.

The transaction is under the three year agreement signed between Bulgaria and IMF on September 1998.

The first two repayment operations took place in the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 under the agreement from 1998 amounting to 288.3 million leva and the stand-by two year agreement with IMF from 2002 worth 296.2 million leva.

Completing all IMF debt payments will decrease the external state debt and state guaranteed debt, which is 8.505 billion leva at the end of March 2007, 16.6 per cent from the country's GDP.

Economic stability and decreased susceptibility to external factors also feature as some results of the early repayment. Bulgaria’s fiscal reserve is expected to reach 5.6 billion leva after the transaction finishes at the end of April.