Browsing: International Monetary Fund

The base criteria for loans worldwide is the usage of a rank-like system used to categorize nations from “best to worse”.

A lower rating is given to a country that holds a large amount of this foreign debt and that usually takes longer to pay the debts. This debt is held mostly in the form of Eurobonds held by international Stock Exchanges, most common the London SE and Irish SE. The value issued between 2018 and 2019 was greater than the value issued in fourteen years from 2003 to 2016.

According to the IMF(International Monetary Fund), many African nations are piling up debt at excessive interest rates with low chance of full- payment due to the accumulation of debts and disparities in  currency exchange rates. Government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product in sub-Saharan Africa has doubled in the past decade, heading back toward the level it reached …

Just days after Kenya repealed a rate cap which portends the return of expensive loans for borrowers, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited the country to “discuss economic development”.

The IMF has held that the country’s real GDP growth averaged 5.6 per cent in the first half of 2019 and is expected to accelerate in the second half of 2019 and 2020.

It adds, “Inflation has remained within the target band and stood at 5.0 per cent in October (year-on-year).”

The IMF visit to Kenya

A staff team from the IMF led by Benedict Clements, visited Kenya from November 18-22, 2019, to among other things discuss “recent economic developments and the government’s reform plans”.

Another mission is planned in early 2020 to hold discussions on a new precautionary stand-by arrangement and undertake the Article IV consultation discussions.

According to the team, Kenya’s economy has continued to perform well.

At the …

Three years after the Banking (Amendment) Bill, 2016, became law, it is time now for Kenyans to brace themselves for expensive loans.

The law dictated that commercial lending rates could not be more than four per cent above the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) benchmark rate.

But now, borrowers are at the mercy of the exploitative banking sector after regaining the freedom to vary lending rates.

MPs desert parliament for law to pass

On Tuesday, November 5, 2019, parliamentarians deserted Kenyans giving President Uhuru Kenyatta a victory in his decision to repeal the interest rates cap.

As is the tradition when important matters affecting Kenyans are being discussed, only 161 MPs were present to vote. It is a constitutional requirement that any law that needs amending has to have at least 233 MPs supporting it for it to pass.

By failing to overturn Kenyatta’s reservations on the Finance Bill, 2019, …