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Public debt: What's the ideal level?

Economic growth goes beyond debt financing. [iStockphoto]

One of the highlights of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Madaraka Day speech was his assertion that debt leads to economic growth. It was a convincing statement, quoting South Korea’s phenomenal economic growth.

The best measure of the national debt is its ratio to gross domestic product (GDP). In 2021, South Korea’s debt to GDP ratio was 47.3 per cent against Kenya’s 68.1 per cent.

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