Ghana’s public debt stock has gone up from the ¢393 billion recorded in June to ¢402 billion in July 2022, with a difference of ¢9 billion in the monthly debt analysis.
This was revealed in the October 2022 Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data released on October 6.
The ¢402 billion is equivalent to 80% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Based on the data by BoG, Ghana did not borrow fresh funds from the international market during the period due to various unfavourable economic conditions occasioned by a weak local currency and high debt levels.
However, the debt level will continue, following the $750 million Afreximbank loan in August 2022.
According to the data, the external debt remains unchanged at $28 billion, translating to ¢298 billion, equivalent to 59% of GDP.
The domestic debt, however, has been going up since January 2022 because of the significant borrowing by the government in the domestic financial market.
It stood at ¢204 billion in July 2022, from ¢190.1 billion in June 2022.
The domestic debt began the year at ¢181.9 billion in January 2022 and then went up to ¢185.4 billion in February 2022 and ¢190.1 billion in March 2022. It subsequently shot up to ¢189.2 in April 2022 and ¢188.5 billion in May 2022.
In June 2022, data provided by BoG showed an additional 41.6 billion Ghana cedis that pushed Ghana’s public debt stock to GH¢393.4 billion.
In dollars, Ghana’s total public debt stock, as of June 2022, was $54.4 billion.
In Dollar terms, the debt dropped by about $4 billion in the first six months from $58.6. billion in January 2022 to $54.4 billion in June 2022.
In Cedi terms, however, the total debt stock within the first six months of this year increased by about ¢41 billion.
The June 2022 debt figure pegged Ghana’s debt to gross domestic product, GDP ratio to 78.3%, using an estimated GDP for 2022 of about 502 billion Ghana cedis.
The World Bank, in its latest Africa Pulse Report, classified Ghana as a high debt distress country as it projects the nation’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 104.6% by the end of 2022.
According to the report, debt is expected to jump significantly, from 76.6% a year earlier, amid a widened government deficit, massive weakening of the cedi, and rising debt service costs.