GGK wrote: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.
“We are the middle children of history man, no purpose or place. We have no great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives!" – Tyler Durden