- Public Debt Climbs To GH¢733.9bn as Domestic Borrowing Drives 2026 Increase
Ghana’s public debt rose to GH¢733.9bn by July 2026, pushing the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio to 45.90% as the domestic component of the debt stock expanded significantly during the first seven months of the year.
The latest Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data shows total public debt increasing from GH¢663.4bn in January to GH¢733.9bn in July, a rise of GH¢70.5bn, or about 10.63%.
Compared with the GH¢641.1bn recorded at the end of December 2025, the increase amounts to GH¢92.8bn.
The debt ratio has moved in the same direction. Public debt represented 41.50% of GDP in January, before rising progressively to 42.20% in February, 42.90% in March, 43.60% in April and 45.10% in May.
It eased marginally to 45.00% in June before climbing again to 45.90% in July, an increase of 4.40 percentage points from the beginning of the year.
The most significant driver of the increase has been domestic debt. Ghana’s domestic obligations rose from GH¢341.0bn in January to GH¢396.7bn in July, an increase of GH¢55.7bn, or approximately 16.33% over the seven-month period.
Domestic debt consequently increased from 21.30% of GDP in January to 24.80% of GDP in July, making it the larger component of the country’s overall debt stock.
By July, domestic debt accounted for approximately 54.05% of total public debt, compared with about 45.95% for external debt when measured in cedi terms.
The changing composition is important because it shows that the recent expansion in Ghana’s debt stock is increasingly being driven by obligations raised or recorded domestically rather than by a sharp increase in external borrowing.
The Bank of Ghana data do not, however, break down the domestic increase by instrument or identify how much reflects fresh issuance, refinancing or other debt-management operations.
External debt presents a more complicated picture because the direction differs depending on whether it is measured in dollars or cedis. In US dollar terms, Ghana’s external debt declined from US$29.4bn in January to US$28.8bn in July, a reduction of US$600mn.
Yet in cedi terms, the same external debt stock rose from GH¢322.4bn to GH¢337.2bn, an increase of GH¢14.8bn, or around 4.59%.
That divergence illustrates how exchange-rate movements can influence the domestic-currency valuation of foreign-currency debt even when the underlying dollar stock is falling.
The Bank of Ghana’s separate exchange-rate data show the cedi weakened during 2026, making foreign-currency obligations more expensive when translated into cedis.
The debt table itself does not attribute the increase specifically to exchange-rate effects, however, so the precise contribution of currency depreciation cannot be determined from the published debt figures alone.
The monthly movement also shows that Ghana’s debt trajectory has not been uniformly upward. Total public debt stood at GH¢720.8bn in May before declining slightly to GH¢719.5bn in June, but then rose by GH¢14.4bn, or about 2.00%, to GH¢733.9bn in July. In dollar terms, total public debt actually fell from US$63.4bn in June to US$62.8bn in July, again demonstrating the importance of currency denomination when interpreting the headline debt numbers.
The same pattern can be seen when the July 2026 numbers are compared with the second half of 2025. Public debt had stood at GH¢630.2bn in July 2025 and increased to GH¢641.1bn by December, before accelerating to GH¢733.9bn by July this year.
The debt-to-GDP ratio similarly moved from 43.90% in July 2025 to 44.70% in December before reaching 45.90% in July 2026.
Ghana’s annual nominal GDP used in the Bank of Ghana table is GH¢1.5971tn for 2026, compared with GH¢1.4tn for the 2025 observations.
The published debt ratios therefore reflect the relationship between the rising nominal debt stock and that GDP denominator.
Because the same annual nominal GDP figure is used throughout the 2026 monthly series, the movement in the debt-to-GDP ratio across the year largely tracks changes in the recorded debt stock.
The figures also show that the composition of debt is becoming an increasingly important part of the fiscal story.
External debt declined from 20.20% of GDP in January to 19.60% in February before rising to 21.10% by July, while domestic debt moved more consistently upward from 21.30% to 24.80% over the same period.
Domestic debt therefore contributed the larger share of the 4.40-percentage-point increase in the overall debt-to-GDP ratio between January and July.
The data do not by themselves indicate whether the increase should be interpreted as fiscally sustainable or otherwise, nor do they provide debt-service costs, maturity profiles, interest payments or the share of debt falling due over the short term.
Those variables are crucial for assessing the actual burden a given debt stock places on government finances. A country can have a lower debt-to-GDP ratio but still face significant refinancing pressure if maturities are concentrated or borrowing costs are high.
What the figures establish clearly is that Ghana’s public debt stock is again increasing in cedi terms after the significant restructuring of recent years.
The increase has been led principally by domestic debt, while the external debt stock has continued to edge lower in dollar terms even as its cedi valuation has risen.
By July, Ghana owed GH¢733.9bn, equivalent to 45.90% of GDP, with GH¢396.7bn of that amount sitting on the domestic side.
The next question for policymakers will therefore be less about the headline debt number alone and more about the pace at which domestic borrowing continues to accumulate relative to economic growth, government revenue and debt-service capacity.
If the domestic component continues to expand faster than the economy, the debt ratio could remain under upward pressure even without a major increase in external borrowing.
The July data consequently shift attention towards the structure and financing of Ghana’s debt, not merely its absolute size.
