Public debt stock increases – Mr Terkper

Ghana’s total public debt stock, which stood at GH¢ 35,999.64 million ($ 19,150.78 million) as at end-December 2012, increased to GH¢ 52,125.91 million ($ 24,021.16 million) at the end of December 2013.

Of the total public debt stock, external debt was GH¢ 24,871.9 million ($ 11,461.71 million), representing 47. 72 per cent, while domestic debt amounted to GH¢ 27,254 million ($ 12,559.45 million), representing 52.28 percent.

Mr Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance, who announced this in Parliament on Wednesday during the presentation of mid-year review of the National Budget Statement and the Economic policy and Supplementary Budget Estimates of the government for the 2014 fiscal year.

He said total public debt as a percentage of GDP stood at 55.77 percent as at end-December 2013, an increase from the December 2012 figure of 48.03 per cent. He attributed the increase in the public debt to the issuance of Eurobond and disbursement for major infrastructure projects such as the Bui Dam, the Ghana Gas Project, the Coastal Protection Projects, and Redevelopment of the Police Hospital.

He said Ghana’s total public external debt stock amounted to GH¢ 17,206.90 million ($ 9,153.6 million) at the end of December 2012 and increased to GH¢ 24,871.90 million ($11,461.71 million) in December 2013. “Total external debt as a percentage of GDP stood at 26.61 per cent at the end of 2013, slightly up from 22.96 percent recorded for the same period in 2012.

“Total public domestic debt stock, which stood at GH¢ 18,792.7 million ($ 9,997.2 million) in December 2012, increased to GH¢ 27,254.00 million ($ 12,559.45) by end-December 2013. This represents a year-on-year growth of 44.4 percent. “As a percent of GDP, total domestic debt was 29.16 per cent at the end of December 2013, against 25.07 per cent at the end of December 2012,” he said.

He said of that total, short-term instruments (91-day, 182-day and 1-year) amounted to GH¢ 8,806.4 million ($ 4,058.25million), forming about 32.3 per cent of the total domestic debt stock, an increase from December 2012 of 30.5 per cent.

Mr Terkper noted that Medium-term instruments added up to GH¢ 12,576.8 million ($5,795.78 million), long-term instruments totalled GH¢ 5,282.5 million ($ 2,434.3 million) and standard loans equalled GH¢ 466.9 million ($ 271.1 million) at the end of December 2013.

He said there was also a slight decrease in the shares of the medium-term instruments (2-year note, 3-year bond, 5-year bond and 7-year bond) from 50.8 per cent of the total domestic stock in December 2012 to about 46.1 per cent as at end-December 2013, while standard term loans (usually with commercial banks) comprised about 2.2 per cent of the total domestic debt stock.