BUDGET: External Debts to Rise, Domestic Debts Down

The Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, said on Friday the country's external debt of 31.7 trillion cedis is expected to increase to about 34.1 trillion cedis (about 6.2 billion dollars) due to more borrowing for debt repayment, creating a net inflow of 402 million dollars.
In his 2001 budget statement presented to Parliament, he said the domestic debt of 9.4 trillion cedis at December 2000 is projected to fall to 6.6 trillion by the end of the year 2001, representing a fall of 2.8 trillion cedis.
"As government restores fiscal discipline and improves on revenue collection, borrowing domestically to finance expenditure will be markedly reduced when long dated bills borrowing will become the norm."
The Finance Minister, who is also the MP of Akim Oda, said a number of options would be used to ease the debt burden.
These include negotiations for debt relief, debt conversion programmes, debt swaps, more concessional borrowing, the use of privatisation proceeds to retire some outstanding debts and restructuring options with banks and other institutions.
The minister said monetary stability would seek to attain a monetary growth rate of 32 per cent this year.
He said the central bank would maintain a "tight monetary policy stance". "The bank of Ghana will continue to enforce prudential regulations to ensure the soundness of the financial system towards the development of the economy."
Mr Osafo-Maafo said currently, there are a number of laws before parliament aimed at facilitating financial transactions, strengthening and deepening the financial system in general and the Bank of Ghana in particular.