Public Debt and Economic Growth: Evidence from Tanzania | Chapter 08 | Emerging Issues and Development in Economics and Trade Vol. 1
External debts can have either positive
or negative effects on the economic growth of country’s economy. If external debts
are used for development expenditure then the country may benefit because
development expenditure like infrastructure may have a multiplier effect on
boosting economic growth. This paper examines the impact of public debt on
economic growth in Tanzania for the period 1970 to 2015. The study utilized
co-integration and Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM) Approach to test
the relationship between public debt and economic growth and granger causality
test to examine the causal relationship between variable. The unit root tests
showed that all variables were integrated after taking the first difference,
the Johansen co-integration result showed that the variables were
co-integrated. The VECM estimate showed that there is a negative relationship
between public debt and economic growth in Tanzania over the study period. In
addition, granger causality test revealed that there is no causal relationship
between public debt and economic growth. Based on these findings, this study
recommended that Government and policy makers should stop the accumulation of
external debt stock overtime and prevent concealing of the motive behind
external debt; external debts should be used only for productive investment of
highest priorities that would help in yielding returns for economic reasons
(productive purposes) and not for social or political reasons.
Author(s) Details
Dr. Salama Yusuf
Department of Finance,
Faculty of Business Administration, Zanzibar University, Tanzania.
Aziza Omar Said
Ministry of Trade and Industry,
Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Comments
Post a Comment