Tanzania struggling with debt load of 60.9 trl./-

DODOMA, Tanzania

Tanzania’s national debt has reached Shillings 60.9 trillion as of April 2021, according to the Minister of Finance and Planning, Mwigulu Nchemba.

Explaining, he said that out of amount, the external debt stood at Shillings 43.7 trillion and the domestic debt was Shillings 17.3 trillion, which mainly was due to the receipt of loan funds to finance development projects.

The Minister said this today, June 10, 2021 while presenting to the parliament the report of the state of the national economy for the financial and the national development plan for the financial year 2021/2022.

"The government's debt sustainability assessment report conducted in 2020 showed that our debt is sustainable in the short, medium and long term period." Said Mwigulu.

Commenting on the strength of the shilling against major global currencies especially the US dollar, Mwigulu said the shilling has remained stable.

"The US dollar was exchanged at an average of Shillings 2298.5 in April 2021 compared to Shillings 2291.3 in April 2020, the stability of the currency is due to the various actions taken by the government in the management of monetary policy and budget in the trade of goods and services, but also in transfer of assets abroad and the positive trend of some of the various economic and social activities.” Said Mwigulu.

He told the parliament  that despite the outbreak of the Covid 19 last year, Tanzania was one of the few countries in the world that had positive economic growth.

He said the East Africa country's GDP was 4.8 percent compared to 7.0 percent growth in 2019 compared to other countries that registered negative growth.

He named the sectors that contributed significantly to the high growth rate of 2020 as the construction sector which was 9.1%, information and communication 8.4%, transportation and conservation which registered  8.4%, administrative services 7.8%, technical activities 7.3%,  minerals and gemstones stones 6.7%, health and social services 6.5%.

"The average per capita income was estimated at shillings 2.6 million in 2020 compared to 2.5 million Tanzanian shillings in 2019 which is an increase of 3.1 percent," he said.