Tanzania’s national debt hits Sh91 trillion
What you need to know:
- The composition of external debt by currency was dominated by the US dollar (68.9 percent), followed by the Euro.
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s national debt has hit $39,006.1 million (Sh91.01tr), a monthly increase of $544.8 million, the central bank's monthly economic review reveals.
At the end of October 2022, external debt accounted for Sh64 trillion, or 70.5 percent of total debt, while internal debt accounted for Sh26.6 trillion.
The statistics are according to the Monthly Economic Review published by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT). The report is issued every month.
On external debt, the report shows that multilateral institutions sustained dominance in the creditor category, accounting for 45.7 percent of the external debt stock, followed by commercial creditors.
Transport and telecommunication economic activities continued to account for the largest share of disbursed outstanding debt, followed by social welfare and education, energy, and mining activities.
The composition of external debt by currency was dominated by the US dollar (68.9 percent), followed by the Euro.
And for the increase in domestic debt, the report attributed it to more utilization of the overdraft facility by the government.
"The composition of domestic debt was similar to previous months, with Treasury bonds and stocks accounting for the largest share, implying continued investors’ preference to securities with longer maturities."
"Pension funds and commercial banks remained the dominant creditors, jointly holding 55.8 percent of total domestic debt," the report shows.
Read: What government is doing to ensure national debt sustainability
Back in June, the minister of finance and planning, Mwigulu Nchemba, attributed the increase in national debt to the receipt of soft loans for financing development projects.
However, he said that while the debt increased, the evaluation report held in November showed that the debt was still sustainable in the short, medium, and long term based on the international measures.
Nchemba was speaking on June 14, 2022, during the handing over of his report for the 2020/21 state of the nation’s economy and national development plan in Dodoma.
