Ratings agency Fitch has stated that it does not anticipate the inclusion of Treasury bills in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme in the foreseeable future.
The UK-based firm has pointed out that despite the attractive returns offered by these short-term securities, they are the government’s sole remaining financing option.
Consequently, incorporating them into the domestic debt restructuring plan would be highly detrimental.
This perspective was shared by Toby Illes, a Senior Director specialising in Emerging markets and African Sovereign Ratings at Fitch Ratings, during the Africa Webinar Series.
The Webinar series titled “Reform and New Challenges in Western Africa,” said the government will not restructure T-bills.
“We don’t expect T-bills to be restructured. Just given the need for that financing tool, we wouldn’t expect that to be included”.
“In Ghana’s case, it is generally very complicated to include that in domestic debt restructuring. I guess the main question is that domestic debt restructuring we would have now is about that the domestic debt restructuring is more about medium term when actually you move a lot of these maturities down the line”, he said
He, however, expressed worry about the huge domestic debt servicing expected in 2027 and 2028, respectively.
“The policy adjustment from now until then is a downward trend. However, as I said, when we get to 2027-2028, we would have a huge hung of domestic debt service.”