Ghana's debt hits 112billion cedis

  

By: Pius Amihere Eduku (citibusinessnews.com: Ghana)

Ghana’s total public debt has hit 112.4 billion cedis equivalent to 28.3 billion dollars, as at September 2016.

The figure represents about 14 percent increase from the 98.8 billion cedis recorded in January this year.

The latest Economic and Financial Data released by the Bank of Ghana also indicated that the country’s total debt represents 67.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The external component of the debt is estimated at 65 billion cedis; representing 39 percent of GDP while the domestic component of the debt is estimated at 47.4 billion cedis; representing 28.4 percent of GDP.

As at July, the provisional figures released by the central bank indicated that the debt to GDP ratio had dropped from the 71.6 percent mark to 65.9 percent.

The external component of the country’s debt had been declining between January and June.

The figure dropped from 60.7 billion cedis in January to 60.4 billion cedis in June.

This translated into a debt to GDP ratio of 36.4 and 36.2 percent respectively.

However, the external component of Ghana’s debts increased by 2 billion cedis in July, went up again in August and reached the 65 billion cedis at the end of September.

Meanwhile the local component of the debt has been increasing throughout the nine month period.

It moved from 40.4 billion cedis in January (24.2 percent of GDP) to 47.4 billion cedis in September (28.4 percent of GDP).

In addition, total expenditure as a percentage of GDP increased significantly from 1.4 percent in January 2016 to 14 percent in July 2016.

Total revenue and grants to GDP for the period also increased by over 700 percent; from 1.3 percent to 11.1 percent.

Similarly, tax revenue accruing to the state for the seven month period went up from 1.1 to 9 percent between January and July this year. (sic)