The public debt and guarantees of Cameroon stood at about 8424 billion FCFA by December 2019. The Ministry of Finance who published the report also reveals the amount represented at this period, around 37.3% of the Gross Domestic Product, against 5039 billion FCFA at the end of 2015 or 30% of the GDP, representing an increase of 67.2% over the last five years.
This upward trend, according to the terms of the document, is mainly explained by the drawdowns made on the statutory advances granted by the drawdowns made on development partners that are the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank ( BM), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and France, but also the acceleration of work on major infrastructure projects.”
The country’s public and publicly guaranteed debt was composed of 77.1% of external debt evaluated at 6,650 billion FCFA as of December 2019. With 22.5% of domestic debt for 1,942 billion FCFA, and 0.4 % of guaranteed debt of around 37 billion FCFA.
Regarding the appreciation of the exchange risk at the end of December 2019, the public debt portfolio in Cameroon was relatively diversified with a proportion of 76.3% of debt denominated in foreign currency including 29.4% of debt denominated in euros, the proportion of the public debt effectively subject to exchange rate risk being thus estimated at 46.9%.
Cameroon’s debt need for the period 2020-2022 is 3,440 billion FCFA, of which 1,217 billion to be covered in 2020, intended for the implementation of projects and for financing short-term cash requirements term, but also budget support.
