Ghana’s stock of public debt increased to GH¢ 205.6 billion at the end of July 2019.
The amount represents a debt-to-GDP rate of 59.4 percent, compared with 53.1 percent of GDP (GH¢159.7 billion) at the end of July 2018.
Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr. Ernest Addison, made this known to the media on Friday, September 20, 2019, at a press conference in Accra.
He was briefing the media on decisions taken and observations made at the BoG’s Monetary Policy Committee’s 90th meeting.
Of the total debt stock, he revealed, domestic debt was GH¢98.4 billion (28.4 percent of GDP), of which GH¢10.7 billion (3.1 percent of GDP) represented bonds issued to support the financial sector clean-up, while external debt was
GH¢107.2 billion (31.0 percent of GDP).
Slow Growth
He indicated that Growth in broad money (M2+) has slowed considerably in the first eight months of 2019, partly reflecting continuing tight monetary policy stance.
“Annual growth in M2+ was estimated at 11.8 percent at end August 2019 compared to 23.1 percent in the same period of 2018,” according to the Governor.
The slower growth in total liquidity mainly reflected sharp moderation in Net Foreign Assets, he stated.
” Annual growth in Reserve Money was 15.0 percent in August 2019, marginally up from 14.2 percent annual growth in the same period of last year,” Dr. Addison said.
Private Sector Credit
According to him, private sector credit growth has moderated slightly after peaking at per cent in March 2019 as credit conditions tightened marginally.
Annual growth in private sector credit was 13.4 per cent in August 2019, compared with 15.8 per cent growth in the same period of 2018, he reported, adding that in real terms, private sector credit expanded by 5.2 percent.
“The recent credit conditions survey indicated some tightening of credit stance on loans to enterprises and households despite increased demand for loans as banks continued to improve their credit risk management systems,” he noted.
“Money market rates have broadly remained unchanged for both
short-dated and long-dated instruments since the last MPC meeting,” he added.