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This study interrogates asymmetric effect of public debt on economic growth among selected emerging and frontier SADC economies. The study estimates a smooth transition regression (STAR) to analyse asymmetric relationship between public debt and economic growth using time series data from 2000 to 2018, extracted from the World Development Indicators. The findings indicate a strong evidence of a significant asymmetric relationship between public debt and growth among emerging and frontier SADC members under consideration. The results revealed the inverted U-Shape effect of public debt on growth in South Africa. While the results for Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe indicate that there is a U-Shape relationship between public debt and economic growth. The study suggest that policymakers ought to consider curbing public debt level within a sustainable threshold target in order to reduce accompanying debt serving costs, and efficiently use public finances consistent with sustainable economic expansion.

This study estimates a Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) approach to analyse the impact of fiscal policy and public debt on economic growth in Southern African Developing Communities (SADC). The study further estimated the fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) to verify the robustness of empirical findings. The results provide rigorous empirical evidence of a positive response of GDP growth due to shocks in government expenditure, employment, and public debt while gross capital formation exerts a negative effect on economic growth. The study proposes that fiscal authorities ought to focus on the adoption of prudent fiscal policies as a credible stabilization tool at the disposal of policymakers to safeguard stable and yet productive public finances consistent with sustainable economic prosperity. These may include addressing infrastructural development, soaring fiscal deficit, creation of jobs, and creating a conducive environment for both labour and capital-intensive projects to flourish in the SADC economies.