MEFMI Supports Tanzania to Conduct Debt Sustainability Analysis

The Ministry of Finance and Planning of Tanzania conducted Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) with technical support from MEFMI.  The workshop was conducted virtually from 1 to 12 November 2021. The main objective of the workshop was to assess the sustainability of Tanzania’s public debt, taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop also aimed at training country officials on the use of the IMF/World Bank Debt Sustainability Framework (DSF) for Low-Income Countries (LIC) to conduct a DSA.

The workshop covered the key concepts and steps to conduct a DSA and a practical application of the IMF/World Bank LIC DSF. Participants were divided into four (4) working groups to generate the relevant data on macroeconomic and market variables, public debt, contingent liabilities and new financing used to populate the LIC DSF. This entailed generating historical data and projections for all relevant variables.

The workshop was facilitated by five (5) resource persons, comprising two (2) MEFMI Accredited Fellows (Dr. Nebson Mupunga of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Dr. Patrick Ndzinisa of the Central Bank of Eswatini), two (2) Graduate Fellows (Mr. Tawedzerwa Ngundu of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Mr. Yasin Mayanja of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in Uganda) and Ms. Cristina Dimande of the MEFMI Secretariat.

A draft DSA Report was produced which detailed key findings of the assessment and recommendations for consideration by senior government officials. A total of 15 officials were trained on the use of the IMF/World Bank LIC DSF to assess debt sustainability. MEFMI expects the trained officials to use the skills and knowledge gained from the workshop to assess debt sustainability of Tanzania going forward.

By Cristina Dimande