Uganda's economy must grow 7 percent to service rising debt

Uganda's economy needs to grow at least 7 percent a year for the next few years, up from an average 4.5 percent for the last five years, to service the rapidly growing public debt, a central bank official told Reuters on Friday. The public debt climbed to $15.9 billion as of the end of February, Adam Mugume, Bank of Uganda (BoU)'s executive director for research, said in an interview.
That includes all debt already disbursed by creditors and debt for which agreements have been signed but money has not yet been received, Mugume said.
The East African nation's debt has nearly trebled in the last three years. It represents 62 percent of Uganda's gross domestic product, according to BoU's latest estimation of GDP at $25.65 billion.