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Ghana's public debt hits Ȼ89 billion - BoG

Kojo Emmanuel

The new figures are seen as an improvement in government’s efforts at controlling the country’s public debt

 
 

The country’s public debt has risen from Ȼ88 billion in March to Ȼ89 billion Ghana cedis as at May 2015.

The new figures are seen as an improvement in government’s efforts at controlling the country’s public debt.

The numbers were contained in the Bank of Ghana’s economic and financial report for the last three months of this year.

Compared to 12 billion Ghana cedis increase in the public debt from December 2014 to March this year, the latest figures suggest that over the past three months, the debt has gone up by just a little over Ȼ1.4 billion.

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However when it is accessed in relation to the public debt’s share of the GDP, it has increased from 65 to 67 percent.

External debt component accounts for more than half of the total debt. Analysts attribute this to the substantial appreciation in the value of the cedi.

On government’s fiscal operations, the data shows that, efforts to march revenue with expenditure appear to be working because of progress being made in tax collections.

Total import bill as at May this year, stood at a little over 1 billion dollars, whiles on the export side, government earned just 963 million dollars.

The report also confirms of some shortfalls in supply of cedi on market, mainly due to efforts by the Bank of Ghana to mobilize money outside the banking system, whiles credit to businesses increase marginally.

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The Bank of Ghana in the report puts the cedi’s appreciation from January to May at almost 10 percent, while the average interest rates is pegged at around 29 percent over the period of review.

Industry Non- Performing loans for commercial banks in the country has also reduced marginally.

The Bank of Ghana’s reserves as at May this year also stood at 4.8 billion dollars, representing a 300 million dollar decline from April.

However this will account for about 2.9 months of import cover.

Source: Myjoyonline

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