The Treasury spent Sh12.72 billion on servicing loans from China in the July-September period its statistics show, accounting for 48.26 per cent of what the country used on servicing foreign debt. The amount paid to Nairobi’s largest bilateral lender represented 70.69 per cent of the Sh17.99 billion total repayments to bilateral creditors in that period, Treasury data indicates. There has been sharp rises, however, in loans procured from foreign commercial banks and China since the economic rebase in September 2014. Debt contracted from Beijing climbed more than four folds to $4.733 billion (Sh477.04 billion) from $922.30 million (Sh92.96 billion) in the review period three years earlier. The spike in debt contracted from China underlines the active participation of the East Asia’s powerhouse in Kenya’s infrastructure development-led growth strategy.

Source: Daily Nation February 13, 2018 08:15 UTC