Ghana's Domestic Debt Surges

Ghana’s domestic debt has increased from just over six trillion cedis to about 8.5 trillion cedis as at June this year. As at December last year the domestic debt stood at 6.1 trillion cedis. The increase in the stock of debt has been partly attributed to the government’s take over of debts owed by the Tema Oil Refinery, the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Volta River Authority.

Dr Samuel Ashong of the Centre For Policy Analysis (CEPA) made this observation during a half-year review of the economy organised by the Private Enterprise Foundation.

The external debt still stands at about 6 billion dollars, of which about fifty two percent is owed to multilateral lenders. On the currency situation in the country, Dr Ashong said government will have to buy foreign exchange to the tune of almost 290 million dollars from the market.

He explained that the purchase of the foreign exchange is to check the expected influx of foreign currency from loans offered government to purchase cocoa.