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Debt service eating two-thirds of national income

    NAIROBI

    However, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Donald Kaberuka said afterwards that bilateral debt covered by the agreement accounted for only 10 to 12 percent of Rwanda’s debt and that servicing its US $1.2 billion debt meant it could not liberate resources for investment in health, education and agriculture. “In relation to our capacity to pay, it is quite significant: 65 to 70 percent of your national income - that is something significant,” Kaberuka added. He said the government was continuing to seek agreement with individual countries to cancel bilateral debt, as well as maintaining its economic reform programme in order to qualify for the IMF’s Highly-Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC) on multilateral debt.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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