Government debt escalates by 9.7%, reaches N$148 billion
Central government debt stock witnessed a notable rise in the fiscal year to the end of September 2023, contrasting with a decline in government loan guarantees, as reported in the latest financial update, the central bank said last week on Friday.
According to the Bank of Namibia’s (BoN) December 2023 quarterly bulletin, by the end of September 2023, the government’s debt stock accounted for 64.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP), demonstrating a decrease of 2.3 percentage points from the preceding year.
This decline was attributed to a higher increase in quarterly GDP compared to the rise in central government debt.
In nominal terms, the central government debt escalated by 9.7%, reaching N$148.8 billion.
According to the central bank, the rise was fueled by increased issuances of both treasury bills and internal registered stock, alongside a surge in external debt due to disbursements from an African Development Bank loan in December 2022 and a loan from the German state-owned development bank KfW in March 2023.
Meanwhile, the BoN said the central government’s total loan guarantees declined yearly to 3.9% of GDP, from 5 % of GDP a year earlier.
“The decline was due to repayments of foreign loans guaranteed by the government in the transport and communication sectors as well as the development finance institutions coupled with repayment of domestic loans, which were guaranteed in the fishing, energy, tourism, and transport sectors,” the central bank concluded.
