The question was not a popular question as most candidates had almost made their choice between questions three to nine in Section B.
Yet, the candidates who were patient enough scored high marks. The definition of public debt – ‘ a debt incurred by government by borrowing from both internal and external sources either on short or long term basis was well presented by most candidates. In addition, good points that were relevant to the demands of the (b) part were presented and discussed thus leading to award of good marks.
However, there were some lazy candidates who scored low marks because they failed to discuss their points. The overall candidates’ performance in the question was above average.
The very good candidates identified some of the following points in the (b) part:
- to meet the cost of large capital projects;
- to meet the cost of national emergencies such as wars;
- to reduce economic burden on tax payers;
- need to finance balance of payment disequilibrum;
- to liquidate or service a debt, etc.