Stop being naive guys. Show me one country that was built with hard cash.

from wiki

HistoryThe first ever government bond was issued by the English government in 1693 to raise money to fund a war against France. It was in the form of a tontine. Later, governments in Europe started issuing perpetual bonds (bonds with no maturity date) to fund wars and other government spending. The use of perpetual bonds ceased in the 20th century, and currently governments issue bonds of limited duration.

so to answer your question...every prosperous nation before 1693

@mainat. Always for a good cause, but u still have the record... u were away for year, last i remember.
We're pretty much screwed on the borrowing side... as long as cbk is not independent. But we borrow for so much unncessary crap, like military... we can't even take museveni on in a fair fight.
Unfortunately for prezzo, the latest increase in debt has been pure revaluation... guess that's why he's getting serious on exchange rates.
Off topic though. Ive been catching up on The Banking (Amendment) Bill, 2011. The new sections are limiting the interest rates spread. The MPC will set the lending rate and a cbk base rate will determine deposit rates. Bankers will not be happy.

Kenya's domestic debt now stand at 759 bln, interest rate payment up to July top last year.

Guys do you think the CBK has been acting as the lender of last resort?

My guy! who is naive here

I'm not sure you know what you are talking about. You really need to understand how some of the G20 countries operate and then come back to your comment.

I just read the Highlights of Kenya’s Debt Strategy by Treasury present at the OECD Forum in Paris in Nov 2009.

The number of assumptions made in the strategy is mind-boggling. How do they manage with so many assumptions? No wonder am not an economist.

I think the assumptions are not too bad. I'm sure they try to build really complicated models (when sometimes things aren't so complex). But without the assumptions you'd probably be groping in the dark.

One good thing for sure is that although our debt is rising fast we're not yet facing a payment crisis. The external debt is concessionary (with payments suspended for many years) and domestic debt is increasingly becoming short (cause people expect inflation to fall).

In terms of making assumptions on debt sustainability... it shouldn't be too hard given the above. The debt strategy has been thrown out of whack momentarily becoz of inflation, but it's safe to assume we're not in bad shape with regard to paying off the cost of debt in the long term. In the short term... let's wait and see.

[quote=Scubidu]So the stats guys crunched the numbers. They told us Kenya debt to GDP was 56.6% in September 2011, then 46.6% in November 2011. I was shocked, in awe. We cut debt to GDP by 10% in two months? Or put another way GDP grew 19.1% in two months... keep cooking those figures boys (cos right now it's well done).

Download the reports below:

http://www.treasury.go.k...p;gid=108&Itemid=54[/quote]

KE Treasury houdini stuff... With ponzinomics anything is possible. Don't be shocked, this is not taught in normal schools you know
That GDP growth would even get the chings to camp here to learn the bewitching tricks...

yes. the change in November is 80b in that one month alone when shilling appreciated. That's a 10% change in debt from reval alone. very impressive. But that's can't explain the GDP ratio.