Dr. Ernest Addison
Total government expenditure at end- December 2023 amounted to GH¢155.58 billion (18.2% of GDP), below the programme target of GH¢183.86 billion (21.5% of GDP).
Recurrent Expenditure was 86.40 per cent of total payments, while Capital Expenditure constituted 13.60 %.
The 2023 Annual Report & Financial Statements of the Bank of Ghana, which made this known, said total government revenue and grants amounted to GH¢134.90 billion (15.8% of GDP), as compared to the programme target of GH¢134.91 billion. The major components were Tax Revenue of GH¢109.92 billion (81.5% of Total Receipts), Non-Tax Revenue of GH¢17.65 billion (13.1% of Total Receipts) and Grants of GH¢2.65 billion (2.0% of Total Receipts).
Budgetary Operations
Government budgetary operations recorded an overall deficit (commitment basis) of 3.1 per cent of GDP in 2023, lower than the programme target of 5.7% of GDP.
The deficit was financed from both foreign and domestic sources.
Composition of Domestic Debt
The stock of domestic debt at end-December 2023 was GH¢260.16 billion (30.9% of GDP), compared to GH¢205.59 billion (33.5% of GDP) at end-December 2022.
The increase in the domestic debt stock in the review period was on the back of GH¢32.88 billion increase in short-term securities, and GH¢1.89 billion increase in the medium-term securities. Long-term securities, however, decreased by GH¢19.68 billion.
Total debt stock stood at GH¢611.22 billion at end-December 2023 (72.6% of GDP), higher than the stock of GH¢447.00 billion at end-December 2022 (72.8% of GDP).
Holdings of Domestic Debt
In the review year, the share of the Bank of Ghana’s holdings of domestic debt declined to 21.0% at end-December 2023, from 20.6% at end-December 2022. DMB’s holdings decreased to 29.2%, from 31.8%. SSNIT’s holdings decreased marginally to 0.6% from 0.7% over the same comparative period. The share of Non-Resident’s holdings decreased to 5.0% at end-December 2023, from 6.7% at end-December 2022.
External Sector
The overall Balance of Payments (BoP) recorded a surplus of US$461.60 million in 2023, compared to a deficit of US$3.64 billion in 2022. The BoP outturn was driven by a current account surplus, as well as relatively lower outflows from the capital and financial account.
Current Account
The current account recorded a surplus of US$1.11 billion (1.4% of GDP) in 2023, compared to a deficit of US$1.52 billion (2.1 % of GDP) in 2022. The current account surplus was due to lower payments in the services and income accounts and higher remittance inflows during the year.
Bond Market
The total value of government of Ghana notes and bonds listed on the Ghana Fix Income Market (GFIM) at end-December 2023 stood at GH¢308.96 billion, compared to GH¢160.29 billion in the corresponding period in 2022.
The total value of corporate bonds stood at GH¢9.67 billion at end-December 2023, compared with GH¢11.77 billion at end-December 2022.
The cumulative volume of trades in 2023 stood at 98.44 billion, valued at GH¢80.0 billion, compared to volume and value of trades of 230.32 billion and GH¢220.76 billion, respectively, in 2022 and 2023.
By Samuel Boadi