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Business News for Sunday, February 21, 2021
Source: Goldstreet Business
02/21/2021
Ghana’s public debt stock jumped from GH ¢ 274.1 billion in September 2020 to GH ¢ 286.9 billion in November 2020
The multilateral debt component of external debt stood at $ 7.9 billion at the end of September 2020, data from the Bank of Ghana revealed.
This is an increase of $ 117.31 million (1.5%), compared to the level of $ 7.81 billion recorded at the end of the second quarter of 2020.
Debt was expected to skyrocket throughout 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, resulting in increased indebtedness for Bretton Wood institutions.
Multilateral institutions include the World Bank, the International Monetary Bank, and the African Development Bank.
According to the Bank of Ghana, multilateral debt represented 32.7% of the total debt stock at the end of the third quarter of 2020.
However, the debts contracted with the international capital market amounted to 10 dollars. 2 billion, representing the highest percentage share of 42.1% of the total stock of external debt at the end of September 2020.
This compares to 37.9% for the same period in 2019. This equity position represented a marginal decrease of $ 15.99 million (0.2%) compared to the $ 10.2 billion level recorded at end of the previous month.
The bilateral component of the external debt stock for the third quarter of 2020 was $ 1.23 billion and represented a 5.1 percent share of total external debt, compared to 5.9% for the same period in 2019.
On the other hand, commercial debts at the end of September 2020 totaled $ 2.2 billion and constituted 9.4 percent of total external debt.
This was $ 57.87 million, 2.6% more than the $ 2.2 billion level recorded in the second quarter.
Other concessional debts totaled $ 1.62 billion at the end of the third quarter and constituted 6.7% of the foreign debt stock.
This indicated a decrease of $ 26.69 million (1.6%) compared to the prior quarter position of US $ 1.65 billion.
COVID-19 spending raises Ghana’s debt to ¢ 286 billion GH
Ghana’s public debt stock jumped from ¢ 274.1 billion GH in September 2020 to ¢ 286.9 billion GH in November 2020, according to the latest Bank of Ghana Economic and Financial Data Summary.
This is equivalent to $ 50.2 billion and represents 74.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (total value of goods and services produced in an economy in one period).
According to the data, the external component of the debt was located at ¢ 139.6 billion ($ 24.4 billion), around 36.2% of GDP.
