Public debt hits 78% of GDP; valued at GHS 391.9bn
Ghana’s public debt in nominal terms has reached GHS 391.9bn according to new data made available by the Central Bank.
In its Summary of Economic and Financial Data report for May 2022, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) pegged the country’s total public debt as a percentage to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 78% at end-March 2022.
The new debt figure of GHS 391.9bn represents an increase of GHS 40.2bn from the GHS 351.7bn (70.0% of GDP) total public debt recorded in January 2022.
On a year-on-year basis, the country’s debt marks an increase of GHS 87.3bn – from March 2021 to March 2022.
Accounting for the chunk of the country’s public debt was domestic debt which has now increased to GHS 189.9bn from the GHS 181.9bn recorded in January 2022.
On a year-on-year basis (March 2021 – March 2022), that represents an increase of GHS 26.3bn.
Domestic debt as a percentage of GDP as at end-March 2022, stood at 37.8%.
External debt under the review period also increased to GHS 201.9bn from GHS 169.8bn in January 2022.
On a year-on-year basis (March 2021 – March 2022), external debt grew by GHS 60.9bn – from GHS 141.0bn to GHS 201.9bn.
As a percentage of GDP, external debt as at end-March 2022, stood at 40.2%.
