Ghana’s total debt stock as announced by the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Ernest Addison at the 100th MPC press briefing on May 31, 2021, currently stands at GH¢304.6 billion representing 70.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Of the total debt stock, domestic debt is GH¢163.6 billion – $28.1 billion – (37.7 percent of GDP), while the external debt is GH¢141.0 billion – $24.5 billion – (32.5 percent of GDP).
Of the country’s external debt stock, a perusal of the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) Quarterly Statistical Bulletin for March 2021 indicates that a total of some Ghs 58.9 billion ($10.2 billion) is owed by country on the international capital market.
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This excludes the freshly issued $3 billion Eurobond in April this year as well as the $1 billion Sustainable bond to be issued on the international debt market this July.
Examining the data provided by the BoG on the country’s external debt, norvanreports noticed that some additional $5.2 billion in debt has been accumulated over the last two to three years specifically from Q2 2018 to Q1 2021.
Debts owed on the international capital market makes up the chunk of Ghana’s external debt.
Aside debts owed on the capital market, debts owed multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, form the next bigger piece of the country’s external debts.
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Presently, debts owed multilateral creditors according to the BoG, is $8.1 billion.
Debts owed multilateral creditors increased by some $1.4 billion, reflective of the $1 billion Covid-19 Rapid Credit Facility taken from the IMF and some $300 million acquired from the World Bank at onset of the pandemic in the country.
