According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), although the debt stock would increase to respond to the emerging financing needs, debt dynamics would remain sustainable and Uganda would remain at low risk of debt distress, with public debt projected to rise above 54 per cent of GDP in FY 2021/22 and peak at 59.6 per cent of GDP in FY 2023/24.

Report on public debt, guarantees, other financial liabilities and grants for FY 2019/20 and the medium term debt management strategy 2020/21 - 2023/24 by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development released on April 31 2020, indicates that the total public debt stock as at December 31, 2019 stood at $13.49b as compared to $11.52b as at December 31, 2018.

This is followed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with 7 per cent and France (AFD) with 5 per cent

The stock of domestic debt

The report reveals that domestic debt trends until end December 2019, government's domestic debt at cost continues to grow at a high rate.

As at the end of December 2019, the total outstanding stock of government domestic debt at cost increased by Shs3.043 trillion (21.2 per cent) from Shs14.333 trillion at the end of December 2018 to Shs17.376 trillion at the end of December 2019.

The report shows that the new domestic debt issued during FY 2019/20 as at December 31, 2019, the total debt issued at cost was Shs4.389 trillion, and this was used for redemptions (62 per cent) and Net Domestic Financing (NDF) requirements (38 per cent).