Public debt now at Sh10.6tr as State eyes to cut domestic borrowing

Controller of budget Margaret Nyakang'o speaking during the annual public debt management report 2023/2024. [File, Standard]

External debt payments almost doubled in the financial year ended June 2024 to hit Sh756 billion as the government intensifies efforts to cut its appetite for domestic credit that has squeezed out the private sector.

The increased payment is largely due to the maturity of the $2 billion (Sh260 billion at current exchange rate) Eurobond that put the country in a tight fiscal space in the first half of the 2023-24 financial year with possibility of default.