Public debt stock hits ¢170b ending Nov. 2018

The country’s total debt stock has significantly increased by ¢2.9 billion in two months to reach ¢172.9 billion ending November 2018.  

The Data from the Central Bank showed that the new debt stock represents 57.9  per cent of the total value of Ghana’s economy otherwise referred to as Debt-to-GDP Ratio by economists.

This could mean that country might have built adequate assets to absorb its rising debt or the economy has expanded in a way to absorb the rising expenditure.

Some economists have also argued that this development was largely influenced by rebasing of the economy by the Ghana Statistical Service.

A breakdown of the debt stock shows that ¢86.3 billion of the debts were secured from outside the county, while ¢86.5 billion were domestic bonds and local borrowings.

Possible reasons for the spike in public debt   

There are no official reasons for now as to what might have accounted for the increase in the debt stock.

However, persons within government say the cedis’ marginal depreciation over the period and some borrowings to help with the restructuring of some banks might have contributed to debt stock going up.

Source: Myjoyonline