BOT refutes report of debt increase of Tshs. 12 trillion

The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) is worried by the reports published in Mwananchi tabloid newspaper in its issue No 6469 which came out two weeks ago that, the national debt has pegged up to 12 trillion between December 2017 and March 2018. A statement issued immediately after the appearance of the news in the newspaper by the Public Relations Department of the Central Bank has refuted these allegations as baseless and pleaded to the general public to repudiate the published statistics as baseless and incorrect. The statement has further clarified that, the national debt has increased by Tshs. 2 trillion from Tshs. 47 trillion to current Tshs. 49 trillion basically due to foreign loans acquired from the developing partners, International monetary funds and from the international business banks. 

BOT Twin tower buildings in Dar es Salaam city

Either the statement has clarified that, an outside debt of the private sector has increased by Tshs. 1.0 trillion from Tshs. 9 trillion to Tshs. 10 trillion only between December 2017 and March 2018 trading period, whereas the internal debt includes short government bonds. However, the statement is further quoted as saying that, the national debt which includes the internal as well as outside government debts of the private sectors has increased by Tshs. 3 trillion from Tshs. 56 trillion to Tshs. 59 trillion during the period under review. The statement has noted that, the increase of the national debt is due to new loans which the government had acquired to accomplish its newly established development projects together with the accumulated interests which had accrued from countries which are not members of Paris club. The said countries have up to now not yet issued a debt relief to highly indebted countries according to the mutual agreements by fellow members. In line with this increase, still the national debt is sustainable and despite of this, the government continues its efforts to increase creating a conducive environment which enables high productivity in various economic sectors with the aim of strengthening the industrialization drive in order to have a middle income economy by year 2025.