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{
    "id": 955104,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/955104/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 288,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Rural, CCU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Mboni",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13388,
        "legal_name": "David Mwalika Mboni",
        "slug": "david-mwalika-mboni-2"
    },
    "content": "The last one is on the interest rates capping. One thing we need to understand is that the credit to SMEs started going down in 2014. That is the time the Government started borrowing heavily from the domestic market and increasing the budget deficit. As it stands now, our budget deficit is about 23 per cent which we are supposed to fund from borrowing either from the domestic market or foreign market. Our debt to GDP stands at 5.9 per cent, which is quite high. I think that the Government is the enemy of the people. If you are competing with the private sector to borrow from the domestic market, you are crowding out the SMEs. Before we think of removing the interest rate capping, the Government should start practising fiscal management discipline. It should start reducing the budget deficit. That is the first step which we need to do so that we live within our means. Secondly, it should reduce domestic borrowing so that we can release funds to the private sector to borrow. When His Excellency the former President Hon. Mwai Kibaki took over power, the budget deficit was around 5 per cent. Banks were hawking loans everywhere in this country. The interest rate went down to below 5 per cent. That is what the Government needs to do."
}