Finance Ministry to borrow GHS 4.5bn from domestic market in Q2 2022
The Finance Ministry’s Debt Issuance Calender indicates that it will be borrowing some GHS 4.59 billion as fresh funds to finance part of its budget within the second quarter of this year.
Government, through the Finance Ministry is expected to mobilize the GHS 4.59 billion from the domestic market, though non-resident investors can take part in some of the bonds that will be issued.
The amount to be borrowed is however higher than the GHS 3.78 billion borrowed in the first three months of 2022.
A major part of the money to be borrowed will come from the 91-day and 182-day Treasury bills.
Whilst the three and six-months bill will be issued weekly, the one-year bill will be issued bi-weekly. There will also be some issuances of medium to long term bonds.
In all, government plans to issue a total amount of GHS 24.69 billion, of which GHS 20.10 billion is to rollover maturities.
According to the Bank of Ghana, government expects the 2nd quarter calendar to meet the requirements of market participants.
Government is therefore assuring all stakeholders and the public that it will continue to strive for greater predictability and transparency in the domestic bond market.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s public debt stock rose to GHS 351.8 billion in December 2021, from GHS 344.5 billion in November 2021, about 80.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the March 2022 Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed.
This confirmed Economists, Analysts and Market Watchers fears that the country’s debt had gotten out of hand and was estimated at about 80% of GDP in 2021.
According to the figures from the Central Bank, about GHS 730 million fresh loans were added to the total public debt stock in December 2021.
The increment may partially be due to the depreciation of the cedi during the last two months of 2021, which consequently increased the external debt component.
