(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s current public debt raised to 3,811 billion FCFA by June 2015, says the Autonomous Amortization Fund (CAA in French), in its latest statistical bulletin. This debt represents 23.4% of Cameroon’s GDP, hence way less than the 70% of GDP standard used in the CEMAC.

However, comparing these statistics to last year’s first semester, CAA states that Cameroon’s public debt has attained 28.8% since it was only of 2,968 billion FCFA in June 2014, thus 19.5% of the country’s GDP. According to the IMF which continues to worry concerning the increasing growth rate of debt over the last 3 years, mainly caused by the fact that the largest part of this debt non-concessional, the country’s debt growth is exactly as it should meaning it will reach 38% of GDP in 2019 (as forecast).

“Cameroon’s debt remains low, mainly due to the important relief from 2006, but it is now rapidly growing. The debt sustainability analysis shows a risk level associated to the external debt which passed from “low” to “moderate”, due to the actual increase of undefined external debt. However, actual trends suggest that Cameroon’s overall public debt should double its percentage of PIB between 2012 and 2019”, revealed the Bretton Wood institution in 2014, after an evaluation mission.

This forecast is within the range of the possible considering all the significant projects which require equally important funding. It is his consideration of these projects that pushed the Cameroonian president to scale down the country’s debt level for 2015 to 1,700 billion FCFA including an incoming 650 billion FCFA – Eurobond.

BRM