A Bank of Ghana (BoG) summary of Economic and Financial Data says Ghana’s total public debt has hit almost GHC110 billion as at July this year.
The Central Bank BoG released the Data after a meeting Friday, September 16 to review the health of the Ghanaian economy.
The meeting is expected to guide the announcement of a new policy rate announcement on September 19. The report shows that about GHC5 billion has been added to the public debt since May this year.
The GHC110 billion public debt, represents almost 66 percent of the total value of the economy or when you look it in terms Ghana‘s debt to GDP Ratio.
Almost GHC61 billion of the debt came from external borrowings whiles GHC49.2 billion came from domestic borrowings.
Finance Minister Seth Terkper earlier this year disclosed to JOYBUSINESS that, the public debt will pick up slightly, in the coming months, but will reduce significantly before the end of this year as a result of fast tracking the implementation of its debt management strategies.
The summary of Economic and Financial Data report revealed that government’s expenditure as at June this year is going up in terms of its share of GDP domestic product, revenue was also not doing bad according to the report.
The Bank of Ghana puts the cedis’ depreciation from January to September at 4.1 percent, with the local currency currently trading at GHC3.96.
According to the Data, most commercial banks are still having challenges with Non Performing Loans. Average lending rate as at August this year stood at 33 percent, whiles the banks are lending among themselves at 25.5 percent.
-myjoyonline