Inconsiderate loan; Ghana's debt stock records an increase of 23%

Data from the Bank of Ghana's summary of financial and economic data on the health of the economy revealed that the country's outstanding debt had increased by almost 23 percent.

The data indicate that the country's debt stock has increased to GH ¢ 200 billion, which means that Ghana's stock of debt has risen by GH ¢ 45.9 billion since May 2018.

This debt buildup means that since the last data release in March, the total outstanding debt has increased by some GHG 2 billion. The debt of 200 billion GH ¢ now represents about 58% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.

The component of the stock of accumulated debt is broken down as follows:

External debt accounted for 105 billion GH ¢ of debt, or 20 billion dollars, or about 30.6% of GDP, while domestic debt amounted to 94.6 billion GH ¢, representing 27, 5% of Ghana's GDP.

The increase in outstanding debt over the past two months can be attributed to the marginal depreciation of cedis and recently advanced funds to clean up the banking and non-banking sectors of the economy.

A joint sustainability badysis conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank concluded that Ghana's external and general risk of debt distress continued to be high.

According to the report, while the rebased nominal GDP has significantly improved public debt-to-GDP ratios, debt service ratios have continued to exceed their respective thresholds below the baseline, reflecting the underlying vulnerabilities.

He noted that the downward trend in the public debt-to-GDP ratio had been halted in 2018, reflecting the realization of large potential liabilities in the banking sector, with seven banks being absorbed until the end of the year. the end of December.