Overview:
According to State of the Economy Report for April 2023 released on Thursday, 11 May 2023, the ratio of total interest payments to domestic revenues increased to 23.5 percent in a year’s period to March 2023 from 20.6 in March 2022.
Uganda’s domestic debt interest payments as a percentage of domestic revenues increased to 18.2 percent during the period ended to March 2023, breaching the 2018 PDMF threshold, a Bank of Uganda report shows.
According to State of the Economy Report for April 2023 released on Thursday, 11 May 2023, the ratio of total interest payments to domestic revenues increased to 23.5 percent in a year’s period to March 2023 from 20.6 in March 2022.
The report states that the rise in domestic debt interest payments as a percentage of domestic revenues breaches the 2018 PDMF threshold of 12.5 percent by a big margin.
“This signifies the mounting liquidity pressures on the domestic revenues to finance the domestic debt liabilities at the expense of other priority budgetary items,” the report states.
The provisional total public debt stock at nominal value as at end March 2023 stood at Shs86.352.6 trillion (approximately 47.7 percent of GDP).
The total public debt increased by 8.1 percent relative to the June 2022 number at cost and the increase was observed for both domestic and external debt. External debt maintained the lion’s share at 59.9 percent.
The Average time to Maturity (ATM) for domestic debt was above target at 6.8 years in March 2023, up from 5.9 years in March 2022 and 5.7 years in March 2021 which is consistent with Government’s strategy of lengthening the maturity structure of domestic debt portfolio to reduce refinancing risks.
However, the share of debt maturing in one year, although below the 30 percent PDMF threshold, deteriorated from 24.9 percent in February 2022 to 25.6 percent in March 2023.