TANZANIA: TANZANIA’S external debt decreased by 3.6 per cent in June, primarily due to a private sector external debt validation exercise conducted following a recent survey.
The stock of external debt decreased by 3.6 per cent to 30.20 billion US dollars (over 75tri/-) at the year ending June.
Bank of Tanzania (BoT) latest monthly economic review shows that the composition of the external debt stock by creditor category, remained unchanged from the previous month and the same period last year, with multilateral institutions continuing as the primary external creditors.
“The external debt owed to the central government continued to account for the largest share of the external debt stock, at 81.4 per cent,” stated the BoT report.
During the month under review, external debt service totalled 200.3 million US dollars (over 500bn/-), of which 120.8 million US dollars (302bn/-) was for principal repayments, with the remaining amount covering interest payments.
Additionally, the BoT report highlighted that transportation and telecommunications sectors continued to hold the largest portion of the disbursed outstanding external debt at 21.8 per cent, followed by social welfare and education.
The report also said that the currency composition of the outstanding external debt remained stable, with the US dollar holding the largest share at 67.1 per cent.
On the other hand, domestic debt stock increased by 446.7bn/- to 31.93tri/- in June this year, driven by the issuance of long-term government securities and increased utilisation of the overdraft facility.
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Treasury bonds remained dominant, accounting for 77.5 per cent of the domestic debt stock, with commercial banks and social security schemes remaining the leading creditors to the government, accounting for 31.3 per cent and 27.4 per cent, respectively, of the domestic debt portfolio, the BoT report said.
During the month under review, the government raised a total of 477.9bn/- from the domestic market to finance the budget, of which 456.6bn/- was through Treasury bonds and 21.3bn/-was through Treasury bills.
According to the BoT report, debt service payments during the month amounted to 1.20tri/-, of which 932.2bn/- was for principal repayments, and 268.4bn/- was for interest payments.
