Government Of Kenya Admits That The Country Is 'Broke'

Kenya is “broke”, its Treasury says, and now plans to slash its budget deficit which reportedly stands at least 80bn shillings ($790m; £569m).

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich made the comment at a senate finance committee yesterday, where he told senators to reduce budgets for each of Kenya’s 47 counties by up to 18bn shillings ($178m; £128m) within this financial year.

“We are running short of revenue. There was a slow-down in business activities because of [last year’s contested] elections. We are now catching up,” he added.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has given Kenya a six-month extension of a frozen $1.5bn (£1bn) stand-by facility in return for “substantially modifying” interest rate controls, the Financial Times reports.

Kenya’s economic growth is expected to have fallen to about 4.8% in 2017, the Financial Times quotes the IMF as saying, from 5.8% in 2016 due to the controls, the political crisis and a prolonged drought.
Source: BBC