Wednesday, July 10, 2024 – Kenya’s external debt has magically reduced as Kenyans continue pushing for the real answers over the money borrowed and how it was used.
The National Treasury published Kenya's outstanding debt portfolio and loan repayments made by the government as of March 2024.
In its monthly publication, the Treasury indicated that Kenya's outstanding debt stood at Ksh10.39 trillion. This was broken down to Ksh5.235 trillion for domestic debt and Ksh5.163 trillion for external debt.
A key highlight revealed in the report was that Kenya's domestic debt increased by Ksh34 billion while the external debt dropped by Ksh490 billion.
The Ksh490 billion drop in the external debt was attributed to the strengthening of the shilling as was witnessed between February and March this year.
Therefore, as of March 31, Kenya's external debt portfolio dropped from Ksh5.65 trillion to Ksh5.163.
Meanwhile, concerning external loan repayments, the Treasury noted that the government had paid back loans amounting to Ksh633.19 billion for the 2023/2024 Financial Year as of the end of March.
Unlike external debt, domestic debt is reported to have increased in March this year. This is attributed to additional borrowing that was done in March.
The domestic debt stock increased by Ksh34.98 billion in March. Therefore, with this borrowing, the external debt portfolio increased from Ksh5.2 trillion at the end of February 2024 to Ksh5.23 trillion at the end of March 2024.
Kenya's external portfolio is expected to continue decreasing should the shilling continue to strengthen against the dollar and other major currencies. Currently, the dollar is trading at Ksh128.
However, the fall may be hampered owing to the expected shortfall in the 2024/2025 budget that the withdrawal of the Finance Bill has occasioned.
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