Cameroon’s treasury will have to pay more than 3 billion CFA F (about 4.6 million dollars) for the repayment of the country’s external debt due to the surge in the rate of the dollar, explained last Thursday, July 21 the country’s Ministry of Finance.

This appears in a context where the 2022 budget was drawn up based on a dollar exchange rate of 588.5 FCFA, the greenback is now worth more than 640 FCFA, an increase of 9% compared to forecasts.

The initial cash plan, in the order of 146.8 billion CFA francs (about 228 million dollars), will eventually appear at 150 billion CFA francs (more than 233 million dollars) during the said period, according to the treasury committee.

Knowing that by May 31, 2022, the outstanding public debt in Cameroon was estimated at 11,672 billion, it represents 45.1% of the Gross Domestic Product. Year-on-year, this amount is up 12.6%.

During the year 2023, the expenditures and charges of the State of Cameroon are projected at 6,040.4 billion FCFA, an increase of 32.7 billion compared to 2022. Part of these expenditures, that is 287.6 billion FCFA (against 239.6 billion in 2022), will be allocated to the payment of interest on the public debt; an increase of 48 billion (+20.03%). Compared to the 190.2 billion paid in 2020, the remuneration of Cameroon’s creditors could jump by 66% in the space of 3 years.

This projection is contained in the medium-term economic and budgetary programming document (2023-2025).