Dr. Ernest Addison
Ghana’s public debt stock has risen to GH¢ 208.6 billion.
The figure was recorded as at the end of
September 2019, the Central Bank announced on Monday November 25, 2019.
Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, who briefed the media, said the stock of public debt rose to 60.3 percent of GDP (GH¢208.6 billion), at the end of September 2019 compared with 56.8 percent of GDP (GH¢170.8 billion) at the end of September 2018.
Of the total debt stock, he revealed that domestic debt was GH¢101.4 billion, of which GH¢11.2 billion (3.8 percent of GDP) represented bonds issued to support the financial sector clean-up, while external debt was GH¢107.2 billion, with a share of 51.4 percent in the total public debt.
Budget
He said provisional data on the execution of the budget from January to September 2019 indicated that total revenue and grants amounted to GH¢36.3 billion (10.5 percent of GDP) compared with the
projected target of GH¢42.0 billion (12.1 percent of GDP).
Revenue Shortfalls
The revenue shortfalls, he added, were from both tax and non-tax sources.
According to him, total expenditures, including arrears clearance was GH¢51.0 billion (14.8 percent of GDP), below the target of GH¢56.1 billion (16.0 percent of GDP).
“These developments resulted in an overall fiscal deficit (on a cash basis) of 4.5 percent of GDP against the target of 4.1 percent of GDP for the period,” he said.
“The primary balance also recorded a deficit of 0.3 percent of GDP against a programmed surplus of 0.1 percent of GDP”, he noted.
The deficit was financed
from both domestic and external sources, according to him.
BY Melvin Tarlue