Debt service payments on government and government-guaranteed external debt for the first quarter of this year decreased by some $224 million (36.3%).
According to the Central Bank, debt service payments made by government for Q1 2021 amounted to $430 million as against the $674 million debt service payments made in the fourth quarter of 2020.
In its recently released Q1 2021 Quarterly Bulletin, the BoG notes that payments in the first quarter were made up of principal repayment of $163.71 million and interest expense of $266.41 million.
Ghana’s multilateral creditors the BoG notes in the Quarterly Bulletin, were paid $29.84 million in principal repayments, and interest payment of $15.98 million in Q1 2021.
This is compared with principal repayments of $22.22 million and interest payments of $13.45 million made in Q1 2020.
Bilateral creditors received $20.04 million in principal repayment and $8.21 million in interest payments in the review period, compared with $46.39 and $20.40 million paid as principal and interest, respectively in Q1 2020.
Commercial creditors on the other hand were paid $158.63 million in Q1 2021, made up of principal repayments of $113.83 million and interest payments of $44.80 million. These compared with principal repayments of $140.63 million and interest payments of $19.10 million for the same period of 2020.
In addition, a coupon payment of $197.42 million was made on outstanding Eurobond debt within the quarter under review compared with $113.60 million for the same period in 2020.
