Public debt stock in Kenya grew to KSh 8.4 trillion as of the end of March from KSh 8.2 trillion in December; this is according to new data from the National Treasury.
Data from the 2021/2022 Quarterly Economic and Budget Review (QEBR) report shows the debt stock is split in the middle, with Ksh.4.2 trillion covering external and domestic debt, respectively.
The latest Central Bank of Kenya Weekly Bulletin figures indicates that Public Debt stood at KSh 8,206.74 billion at the end of December 2021. This is an increase from KSh 7,996.30 billion in September 2021.
Public Debt holders as at May 2022
As of 6th May 2022, banking institutions were the biggest holders of the domestic debt at 49%, followed by pension funds (31.93%), Insurance Companies (6.96%), and Parastatals (5.78%), while others hold 6.32% of domestic debt.
Loans from multilateral lenders dominate external loans at KSh 1.82 trillion, while debt sourced from commercial banks stands at KSh 1.21 trillion at the end of the period.
Domestically, commercial banks trail non-banks & non-residents KSh 1.98 trillion of the domestic debt stock accruing back to the lenders. The latter owed KSh 2.12 trillion in arrears from the government.
While the stock of debt has only expanded by 2.4 per cent in the first three months of 2022, Kenya’s gross public and publicly guaranteed debt has soared by 15.1 per cent year over year from KSh7.3 trillion last March.
Kenya’s debt is on course to hit the current KSh9 trillion later this year as the country’s reliance on domestic and external financing to fund spending continues.
According to Treasury estimates, public debt stock is expected to hit Ksh.8.6 trillion at the close of June 2022 before rising further to KSh9.5 trillion next June.
By June 2026, the public debt stock is expected to hit KSh 11.6 trillion.
Cognizant of the depleted debt ceiling, Treasury has proposed to tweak the debt ceiling to cap the debt limit at 55 per cent of GDP at net present value (NPV.
This proposal will be achieved by amendments to the Public Finance Management Act (PFM).
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