Public Debt Balloons To Ghc273.8bn

Ghana's public debt stock increased to Ghc 273.8 billion at the end of September 2020, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced.

According to the bank, Budget implementation through September 2020 was broadly in line with the revised mid-year Budget estimates following the introduction of fiscal measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

It said provisional data for the first three quarters of 2020, showed an overall budget deficit of 9.0 percent of GDP against the target of 8.9 percent of GDP.

The primary balance also recorded a deficit of 4.1 percent of GDP, marginally above the target of 4.0 percent of GDP, the Bank stated.

The Bank of Ghana made this known after its 97th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

It noted that “Over the review period, total revenue and grants amounted to GH¢36.3 billion (9.4% of GDP) compared with the target of GH¢35.7 billion (9.3% of GDP).”

Total expenditures and arrears clearance, according to the bank, amounted to GH¢70.9 billion (18.4% of GDP), marginally above the target of GH¢70.0 billion (18.2% of GDP).

“The deficit was financed mainly from domestic sources,” it noted.

“These developments impacted the stock of public debt which was 71 percent of GDP (GH¢273.8 billion) at the end of September 2020 compared with 62.4 percent of GDP (GH¢218.2 billion) at the end of December 2019. Of the total debt stock, domestic debt was GH¢135.3 billion (35.1% of GDP), of which the financial sector bailout accounts for 4.0 percent of GDP, while external debt was GH¢138.5 billion (35.9% of GDP).”