The Bank of Ghana‘s (BOG) March 2024 Summary of Economic and Financial Data has revealed that Ghana‘s public debt has soared to GH¢610 billion ($52.4 billion) by the end of 2024.
This marks an increase of GH¢42.7 billion from September 2023 to December 2023, following a previous decline of ¢14.2 billion between June 2023 and September 2023, when it stood at ¢567.3 billion ($51.0 billion).
The current debt level accounts for 72.5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), indicating that Ghana’s debt situation remains challenging despite the completion of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
The rise in debt is attributed to a GH¢19.1 billion increase in domestic debt and a GH¢23.6 billion increase in external debt, primarily due to the depreciation of the cedi.
According to the Central Bank’s data, the external component of the total public debt was $30.1 billion (¢350.3 billion) in December 2023, representing 41.6% of GDP.
Meanwhile, domestic debt stood at ¢259.7 billion, accounting for about 30.1% of GDP.
The report, however, lacks information on the financial sector resolution debt and other liabilities like the energy sector debt.
Despite these challenges, the government’s fiscal operations remained on target, with the deficit-to-GDP ratio standing at 3.3% in December 2023, down from 8.3% in December 2022.
Additionally, there was a surplus of 0.4% of GDP in the primary balance in December 2023.
Ghana had suspended interest payments on loans to external creditors in December 2022 amid economic difficulties and is currently in negotiations with bondholders after reaching a deal with bilateral creditors in January 2024.
