First Quarter External Loan Disbursement Dwindles

Dec 11 , 2021

The government received 137 million dollars in external loans over the first quarter of the fiscal year, down 37pc compared to the same period last year. The figure is also half of what was disbursed during the final quarter of 2020/21. The majority of the financing came from multilateral lenders including the African Development Bank (AfDB), African Development Fund (AfDF) and the World Bank, amounting to 131 million dollars. The balance was disbursed by bilateral creditors, mainly China. Over the same period of the previous fiscal year, multilateral creditors had disbursed 192 million dollars. The government has serviced over 600 million dollars of foreign debt over the first quarter, resulting in a 470 million dollar negative net transfer. The country's total outstanding external debt stands at close to 30 billion dollars. The government has requested debt restructuring under the IMF's common framework extended to low-income countries.