•Ghana’s external debt hit GH¢140 billion in March 2021

• This information was contained in the central bank’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data for May 2021.

•The IMF has predicted that the country’s debt will go above GH¢300billion before the end of 2021

Ghana’s external debt stock dropped by GH¢1.5billion to hit GH¢140.0 billion in March 2021, the latest Bank of Ghana (BoG) Summary of Economic and Financial Data has revealed.

This is equivalent to 32.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), lower than the 32.7% registered in the same period last year.

The fall in debt to GDP ratio is probably due to government raising bonds to offset some debt.

Between December 2020 and March 2021, the country’s external debt has been reduced by GH¢0.8 billion. The debt stood at GH¢141.8 billion at the end of last year.

Domestic Debt

The domestic debt went up to GH¢163.6 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2021, compared with GH¢149.8 billion in December 2020. This is equivalent to 37.3% of GDP.

Importantly, the financial sector debt went down by GH¢100 million to GH¢15.2 billion. It is equivalent to 3.5% of GDP.

The debt could go down if levies collected to settle the financial sector debt is used to settle part of it.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have described Ghana’s debt levels as worrying. It has however warned that the nation is gradually into the Highly Debt Distressed category.

The IMF said the country’s debt will go above GH¢300billion before the end of 2021.

Below is the BoG statement: