Ghana's public debt reaches GHC120 billion

The Bank of Ghana's (BoG) Macroeconomic and Financial Data report revealed that the country’s debt stock has reached GHC120 billion as at November 2016.

This was contained in the summary of released by the Central Bank at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Friday 20 January 2017.

The new figures show that the public debt rose by GHC8 billion in just two months, that is from September to November 2016.

But sources close to the previous administration maintain that the increase does not necessarily mean that there were fresh borrowings by government during that period.

However, other factors like the cedis’ marginal depreciation and possible delays in interest payments could have resulted in the debt numbers recording such a significant increase.

The GHC120 billion public debts put the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio at 71.9 percent for November ending.

External Debt accounted for about $66 billion of the debt, with local component accounting for $53 billion.

The report puts the end-of -year-cedi depreciation at 4.23 percent. The loans banks fear might go bad seems to decline, reducing from 19 percent in September to 17.4 percent as at December 2016.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Joy Business