Originally published in the African Development Bank website.
East Africa is the only region in Africa that avoided a recession in 2020, thanks to better performance in agriculture, sustained public spending on large infrastructure projects, and increased regional economic integration…
Several East African countries have implemented measures to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, including emergency responses to strengthen healthcare, fiscal and monetary policy stimulus packages to support economic activity, and increased social spending to protect vulnerable livelihoods and groups.
This report focuses on the dynamics of public debt in East Africa. In recent years the region’s public debt has risen, driven by a slowdown in real GDP growth, substantial nominal exchange rate depreciations in countries with a large share of foreign currency debt, emergency spending measures in the health sector, and reduced inflows of commodity revenues.