DEBT (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Aug. 31, 2014

Debt Disclosure [Abstract]

Schedule of Debt [Table Text Block]

The following table provides the changes in the Company's long-term debt for the twelve months ended August 31, 2014:

(Amounts in millions)	Current Portion of Long-term debt		Long-term debt		Total
Balances as of August 31, 2013	12,757		60,263		73,020		(1)
Proceeds from long-term debt:
Panama subsidiary	2,400		21,600		24,000
Honduras subsidiary	—		13,734		13,734
El Salvador subsidiary	800		3,408		4,208
Repayments of long-term debt:
Repayment of loan by Colombia subsidiary, originally entered into on November 1, 2010 with Citibank, N.A. in New York	—		(8,131	)	(8,131	)
Repayment of loan by Panama subsidiary, originally entered into on September 11, 2010 with Metro Bank, S.A.	(500	)	(2,708	)	(3,208	)
Repayment of loan by El Salvador subsidiary, originally entered into on September 1, 2009 with Scotiabank El Salvador, S.A.	(4,066	)	—		(4,066	)
Regularly scheduled loan payments	(2,102	)	(6,249	)	(8,351	)
Reclassifications of long-term debt	2,567		(2,567	)	—
Translation adjustments on foreign-currency debt of subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the U.S. dollar (2)	(8	)	241		233
Balances as of August 31, 2014	11,848		79,591		91,439		(3)

⁽¹⁾ The carrying amount of cash assets assigned as collateral for this total was $33.8 million, and the carrying amount of non-cash assets assigned as collateral for this total was $55.2 million.

⁽²⁾  These foreign currency translation adjustments are recorded within other comprehensive income.

⁽³⁾  The carrying amount of cash assets assigned as collateral for this total was $24.6 million, and the carrying amount of non-cash assets assigned as collateral for this total was $84.2 million.

Schedule of short-term borrowings

The short-term borrowing facilities are summarized below (in thousands):

			Facilities Used
	Total Amount of Facilities		Short-term Borrowings		Letters of Credit		Facilities Available		Weighted average interest rate of loans outstanding
August 31, 2014	$	61,869	$	—	$	436	$	61,433	N/A
August 31, 2013	$	35,863	$	—	$	588	$	35,275	N/A

During the fiscal year 2014, PriceSmart, Inc. increased its short-term facilities by approximately $15.0 million and established short-term facilities within its Colombia subsidiary of approximately $10.9 million dollars.

Schedule of long-term debt

Long-term debt consists of the following types of loans (in thousands):

	August 31, 2014			August 31, 2013
Loans entered into by the Company's subsidiaries with a balloon payment due at the end of the loan term and with non-cash assets and/or cash or cash equivalents assigned as collateral and with/without established debt covenants	$	11,733		$	23,442
Loans entered into by the Company's Colombia subsidiary for which the subsidiary has entered into a cross-currency interest rate swap with non-cash assets and/or cash or cash equivalents assigned as collateral and with established debt covenants	22,532			30,346
Loans entered into by the Company's subsidiaries for which the subsidiary has entered into a interest rate swap with non-cash assets and/or cash or cash equivalents assigned as collateral and with established debt covenants	28,200			6,525
Loans entered into by the Company's subsidiaries with non-cash assets and/or cash or cash equivalents assigned as collateral and with/without established debt covenants	28,974			12,707
Total long-term debt	91,439		(1)	73,020
Less: current portion	11,848			12,757
Long-term debt, net of current portion	$	79,591		$	60,263

Annual maturities of long-term debt

Annual maturities of long-term debt are as follows (in thousands):

Years Ended August 31,	Amount
2015	$	11,848
2016	25,931
2017	16,075
2018	8,483
2019	18,765
Thereafter	10,337
Total	$	91,439