The total amount of debt service made through the Bank of Ghana on public and publicly guaranteed external debt at the end of the second quarter of 2020 amounted to $547.65 million.
This was $171.87 million (45.7 per cent) more than the payment of $375.78 made in the first quarter of 2019 and $97.50 million (21.7 per cent) higher than the payment of $450.16 million made for the second quarter of 2019.
Payments in the review quarter were made up of principal repayment of $271.01 million and interest expense of $276.65 million. Payments were made to the various creditor groups as follows:
The multilateral group of creditors were paid $27.24 million in principal repayments, and interest payment of $14.87 million, compared with principal repayments of $21.67 million, and interest payments of $13.95 million made in Q2 2019.
The bilateral group received US$34.01 million in principal repayment and US$7.63 million in interest payments, compared with US$32.74 and US$8.62 million paid as principal and interest respectively in Q2 2019.
Commercial creditors were paid $252.33 million, made up of principal repayments of $209.75 million and interest payments of $42.58 million.
These compared with principal repayments of $190.94 million and interest payments of $50.98 million made in the same period in 2019.
In addition, a coupon payment of $211.58 million was also made on outstanding Eurobond debt in Q2 2020 compared with $131.26 million for the same period in 2019.
