Kenya: Kenya Serviced Foreign Loans with $1.2bn in 2021

Kenyan treasury on Monday reported that the country paid 137 billion shillings or about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 to service its external debt. In its report, the Treasury said that 704 million dollars were for the principal amount and 496 million dollars for interest.

Following the pandemic breakout, Kenya authority has raised more debt, while the country was also among the beneficiaries of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing right (SDR) largesse.

In dollar terms, external public debt stock increased from 34.7 billion dollars as of December 2020 to 36.9 billion dollars by the end of 2021, said the Treasury.

This comprised debt owed to multilateral lenders (42.7 per cent), commercial banks (29 per cent), bilateral sources (28.1 per cent) and suppliers’ credit (0.3 per cent), according to the government agency.

According to the treasury, in a report titled quarterly economic and budgetary review for the period ending December 2021“the rise is attributed to increasing in external loans disbursements and exchange rate fluctuations.’’

Kenya’s gross public debt increased by 8.14 billion dollars in 2021, ending the year at 72 billion dollars, according to the Treasury. The debt comprised 50.9 per cent external debt and 49.1 per cent domestic. #Kenya Serviced Foreign Loans with $1.2bn in 2021.