Poor countries suffer the most as result of tough monetary policies being imposed by developed countries, according to Kenya's Central bank governor.
This, Patrick Njoroge said, has pushed up the cost of living and slowed economic growth.
Speaking at a panel discussion with Abebe Selassie, the director of the African department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the fund's annual meeting in Washington DC, Njoroge said monetary tightening especially in the US has crowded poor nations out of international commercial debt market.
"High rates in rich countries have made it difficult for countries like Kenya to access credit in the commercial market where rates are now as high as five per cent. Yields on instruments like Eurobond are extremely high," Njoroge said.
He called on multilateral lenders like IMF to double or triple support for developing and frontier countries in need of credit.
The Central bank boss took a swipe at IMF for delaying fund decisions to countries in need, urging the lender to expedite approval and release of credit to deserving nations.
"In times like these, traditional cautionary funds comes in handy. The problem is that they are not running as fast as Eliud Kipchoge [world marathon champion]," Njoroge said.
He said Kenya is pushing to access additional resources in the form of loans from IMF as external commercial financing remains out of reach.
“We didn’t get all of this external resources that we were to get from the markets. We would require additional inflows which would help us right away, he said.
He said a doubling or tripling of access is something that should be put on the table.
Njoroge's concerns on the slow speed by IMF follows the fund's delay in disbursing the third tranche of $2.3 billion loans advanced to Kenya in April last year.
Kenya expected the IMF board to approve the loan before the end of the financial year, but the fund okayed disbursement in mid July, almost half a month into a new financial year.
Delays in the disbursement of Sh29 billion funds left a hole in the country's budget, a move that saw it commence Eurobond debt talks to fill the deficit.
However, the fund released the credit facility later in July, bringing the amount disbursed under the programme to Sh143 billion. It is expected to release the fourth tranche before December.
Kenya has since ignored calls fora $1 billion commercial loan terming it costly.
“Financial markets have become dysfunctional. We have been shut from the capital markets as we are unable to borrow at appropriate rates,” he added.
The arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) was reached in February last year and was set to address the next phase of Kenya’s Covid-19 response and reduce debt vulnerabilities.
President William Ruto's government is looking for cheaper and long-term debt to fund development projects, while cutting down on rising public debt that hit the Sh8.6 trillion mark as of June this year.
Last week, Cabinet Secretary nominee for the National Treasury Njuguna Ndung'u termed both domestic and commercial debts as way too expensive.
He insisted that Kenya needs to take multilateral loans to retire expensive local and commercial loans.