NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenya’s government will no longer borrow any money at interest rates of more than 10%, President William Ruto said on Friday, adding that the cost of debt had become impossibly high.
Ruto, who was sworn into office in September, is seeking less costly loans after a debt-fuelled infrastructure construction drive by his predecessor saddled the country with high-interest commercial debt.
“We will go to the market, and if we find that in the market we cannot find money at 10%, we will go back and re-look at other sources,” he told a meeting of pension industry executives streamed online by his office.
“It is not possible for us to borrow at beyond 10%… the last borrowing we did was at 14%. That is unacceptable.”
At Thursday’s auction, the weighted average yield on the benchmark 91-day Treasury bill was 9.173% from 9.139% a week earlier.
The weighted average yield on a 14-year Treasury bond auctioned on Wednesday was 13.938%.
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(Reporting by Duncan Miriri and George ObulutsaEditing by Alexander Winning)