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Kenya has borrowed almost 10 syndicated loans since President Mwai Kibaki’s 2011 four- year Sh50 billion commercial loan. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Kenya’s foreign banks debt stock hits Sh1trn
Kenya’s expensive debt from foreign commercial banks hit Sh1.09 trillion by end of June following the Sh210 billion May Eurobond issue.
The loan type has grown fold over the last four years.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) balance of payment data sourced from the Treasury shows that in June 2015 Kenya’s commercial loans stood at Sh276 billion. They have since grown by 296 percent in the intervening period.
“The stock of public external debt increased by Sh462.9 billion to Sh3.023 trillion as at end of June 2019. Stock of debt from commercial banks increased by 20.9 percent to Sh1.096 trillion as at end of June 2019,” KNBS said in the report released on Monday.
In 2013 only seven percent of external debt was commercial, with 27 percent bilateral and 64 percent borrowed from multilateral sources.
But by June last year commercial debt had gone up to 34 percent, while bilateral stood at 31 percent and multilateral 34 percent.
