National Treasury CS Henry Rotich at a past event. He has said that loans between July 2016 and April 2017 rose to Sh167.14 billion from Sh74.33 billion in the same period previously. [PHOTO/the-star.co.ke]
Commercial loans taken by the Kenyan government doubled in 10 months of financial year 2016-17 as compared to one year earlier, the official Exchequer data shows.
According to National Treasury CS Henry Rotich who communicated in the Statement of Actual Revenue and Net Exchequer Issues, loans between July 2016 and April 2017 rose to Sh167.14 billion from a previous Sh74.33 billion in the same period a year earlier.
This puts the rise therefore at Sh92.81 billion, which translates to 124.86 per cent as confirmed in the Kenya Gazette on Friday.
The 2014 upgrade of Kenya's economy into lower middle-income status locked the country out of concessional loans mainly from the World Bank Group's International Development Association.
“Following Kenya’s elevation to lower middle income economy status in September 2014,recourse to borrowing on commercial and semi-concessional terms has increased while that on concessional terms has declined,” said the Central Bank of Kenya in the quarterly Economic Review for the period of October-December last year.
The data also shows that between July and April this financial year, the Kenya Revenue Authority collected Sh989.94 billion, a small growth of 11.46 per cent.