{"id":2760,"date":"2021-08-30T07:37:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T07:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-in-m15b-debt"},"modified":"2021-08-30T07:37:20","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T07:37:20","slug":"lesotho-in-m15b-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-in-m15b-debt","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho in M15b debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Lesotho\u2019s total outstanding debt amounted to over M15 billion as at March 2019, according to the report of the auditor general on the consolidated financial statements of the government of Lesotho published this week.<\/p>\n

External debt accounted for most of the total debt, 79.78 percent, and was largely owed to multilateral creditors. \u201cExternal debt stock amounted to M12.662 billion as March 31, 2019, after taking into consideration exchange rates as of that date,\u201d Monica Besetsa, acting auditor general, stated in the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe repayments and interest charges were M588 million and M229 million respectively,\u201d Besetsa added. This means in the year under review, government paid a total of M817 million towards servicing its external debt.<\/p>\n

In the 2018\/2019 financial year, Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) collected M6.9 billion, meaning out of every loti Basotho paid in tax, about 12 lisente went to repayments and interest charges on past external debts.<\/p>\n

Besetsa said the outstanding domestic debt as at March 31, 2019, was M3.209 billion. \u201cThe minister of finance is also empowered by the loans and guarantees act, 1967 to raise loans internally for financing development projects,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDomestic debt comprises Treasury Bills, Fiscal Bills and Treasury Bonds issued by the Central Bank of Lesotho.<\/p>\n

Fiscal Bills and Treasury Bonds finances the fiscal deficit when the need arises while treasury Bills are used to mop up excess liquidity,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The acting auditor general explained that in his budget speech for the financial year 2018\/2019, the Minister of Finance (then Dr Moeketsi Majoro who is now Prime Minister) indicated that Lesotho\u2019s overall fiscal position remained weak for most of 2017\/2018, with irregular spikes of shortages in cash and foreign reserves.<\/p>\n

She said government revenue was projected to be M845.7 million below budget by the end of the fiscal year and the LRA was likely to miss its tax collection target by about M684.4 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fiscal deficit was estimated at 5.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (DGP) up from the budgeted 4.8 percent. The outstanding debt at 31 March 2019 was M3.209 billion,\u201d Besetsa said.<\/p>\n

Lesotho\u2019s total public debt increased to 38.8 percent of GDP in the financial year in the financial year 2017\/2018 from 37.6 percent according to the joint bank-fund debt sustainability analysis of 2018.<\/p>\n

The update was prepared jointly by the staff of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). IDA and IMF said the increase was observed in both domestic and external borrowing and was partially offset by growth in nominal GDP and appreciation of the South African rand.<\/p>\n

\u201cLesotho\u2019s risk of external debt distress has been revised from low in the 2017 Article IV to moderate, reflecting weaker GDP growth projections, expanded debt coverage, larger deficits, and the inclusion of large contingent liabilities,\u201d the two organisations said.<\/p>\n

They warned that the debt ratio could be unsustainable over time if not monitored carefully. For instance, they said, the stock of debt is set to increase to 45.3 per cent by 2020\/2021. Lesotho\u2019s public debt data covers the central government, the central bank, and the publicly-guaranteed debts for state-owned enterprises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho\u2019s total outstanding debt amounted to over M15 billion as at March 2019, according to the report of the auditor general on the consolidated financial statements of the government of Lesotho published this week. External debt accounted for most of the total debt, 79.78 percent, and was largely owed to multilateral creditors. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,321],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-m15b"],"yoast_head":"\nLesotho in M15b debt - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-in-m15b-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lesotho in M15b debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho\u2019s total outstanding debt amounted to over M15 billion as at March 2019, according to the report of the auditor general on the consolidated financial statements of the government of Lesotho published this week. External debt accounted for most of the total debt, 79.78 percent, and was largely owed to multilateral creditors. 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