Ghana�s Debt Rises To GHC105bn

Ghana’s total public debt stock reached GHC105.1 billion at the end of May 2016, representing 66.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as against GHC104.5 billion at the end of April 2016, rep¬resenting 66.3 percent of GDP.

Out of the total debt stock, debt incurred internally was GHC43.2 billion, representing 27.3 percent of GDP, while the external debt stock stood at GHC61.9 billion, represent¬ing 39.1 percent of GDP.

Since January, this year, the country's debt has been increasing, crossing ?1 billion month on month.

In January, the debt was GHC101.1 billion and increased to ?102.3 billion in February.

In March, the debt rose to GHC103.1 billion.

The NDC government inherited a debt stock of GHC9 billion in 2008 but has succeeded in increasing it to GHC105.1 billion as at May, 2016.

Contradiction

The Ministry of Finance put the total national debt at GHC97.2 bil¬lion at end of December last year but the Central Bank on a number of occasions could not provide the figure in its Monetary Policy Com¬mittee (MPC) report.

Government has not been forth¬with with the true state of the coun¬try's total debt since January, this year.

Policy Rate Maintained

Meanwhile, the Monetary Poli¬cy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) maintained the policy rate at 26 percent.

This is the fourth time that the Central Bank has maintained the policy rate since January this year.

In assessing the current econom¬ic conditions, the Committee said the risks to inflation and growth are balanced and decided to maintain the policy rate.

Dr. Abdul Nahir Issahaku, Gov¬ernor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), who was addressing the press, said "the tight policy stance, inflows from the cocoa pre-export finance facility and expected issuance of the Eurobond in the last quarter would boost reserves, improve liquidity on the foreign exchange market and support the disinflation process over the forecast horizon."

Growth and risk

He said growth prospects for the rest of the year would be impacted positively by the stability in the foreign exchange market, con¬tinued improvement in consumer and business sentiments and the realization of additional oil and gas production from the TEN oil fields.

However, he said risks to the growth outlook, such as the tight credit conditions, electricity supply shortfalls and continued fiscal tight¬ness, may moderate the pace of eco¬nomic expansion.

Source: myjoyonline.com