Kenya will have to increase its budget for servicing bilateral loans to China by 36 percent amid rising interest rates and falling currency value, according to a media report.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u is seeking a nod from lawmakers to raise the estimated repayments towards loans contracted from China to 152.39 billion Kenyan shillings ($1 billion), up KES40 billion ($264.2 million), from KES112.39 billion in the initial budget in June.

The Exim Bank of China funded 90 percent of the KES566.12 billion spent on developing the 700 kilometres Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from the port city of Mombasa to Suswa near Naivasha.

(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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