Ghana’s public debt stock shot up by ¢27.8 billion in April 2021 and May 2021 to ¢332.4 billion, the latest Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana has revealed.
This is equivalent to $57.9 billion, about 76.66 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
In March 2021, the total debt stock stood at ¢304.6 billion, and the significant increase in the debt stock is due to the $3 billion Eurobond raised in March 2021 as well as the huge borrowing on the domestic market.
In April 2021, the public debt stock was ¢328.0 billion. This means ¢23.4 billion new debt was added to the total debt stock.
However, in the recent Government Issuance Calendar, the government is expected to slow down its borrowing in the third quarter of this year [July 2021 to September 2021] as it’s expected to borrow less than a billion cedi for the entire three months.
The domestic debt went up by ¢7.2 billion to ¢170.8 billion at the end of May 2021 despite some under subscription of Treasury bills sale. This is equivalent to 39.4% of GDP.
The external debt also went up by $3.5 billion (¢20.3 billion) to $28.1 billion. This is approximately 37.2% of GDP.
However, the financial sector debt stood unchanged at ¢15.2 billion, equivalent to 3.5% of GDP.
But the debt could go down if assets of defunct banks are retrieved quickly to offset part of it.
