Ghana’s debt stock grows by 6.4% in April and May
A 6.4 percentage points increase in the country’s total debt stock has been recorded in April and May this year.
Per data contained in the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) July 2021 Summary of Economic and Financial Data and examined by norvanreports, the country’s debt stock for the two months under review increased by some Ghs 27.8 billion ending the month of May at Ghs 332.4 billion.
Total debt stock as at March 2021 was Ghs 304.66 billion, it then increased to Ghs 328 billion in April and then to Ghs 332.4 billion in May this year.
The astronomical increase in the nation’s debt stock some analysts have attributed largely to the $3 billion Eurobond issued in the last days of the month of March as well as the issuance of short-term securities on the domestic debt market.
For the review period – April and May – the external composition of the nation’s debt stock increased by 4.7 percent from 32.5 percent in March to 37.2 percent in May.
In monetary terms, this translates into Ghs 161.5 billion ($28.1 billion).
With regards to the domestic component of the debt stock, domestic debt increased marginally from 37.7 percent in March to 39.4 percent in May, translating into some Ghs 170.8 billion at end-May 2021.
Cumulatively, Ghana’s total debt stock as at end-May 2021 according to the BoG stood at 76.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), some 6.4 percentage points increase from the 70.2 percent of GDP recorded at end-March 2021.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its July 2021 Article IV Consultation Paper on Ghana’s economy has pegged the country’s total debt stock at 79 percent of GDP.
