National Debt: Ghana’s total debt stock rises to GH¢138.8 billion

Ghana's total debt stock now stands at GH¢138.8 billion, according to data released by the Bank of Ghana.

Ghana’s total debt stock has risen to GH¢138.8 billion as of November 2017, a summary of economic and financial data released by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed.

The figure represents 68.7 percent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a minimal decrease compared to the previous months.

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In September, the country’s total debt stock stood at 138.9 billion cedis, but decreased to 137.6 billion cedis in October before going up to the 138.8 billion cedis in November.

In terms of the country’s external and internal component debts, the figures stand at 74.7 billion cedis (16.9 billion) and 64.2 billion cedis respectively.

However, Ghana’s total public debt is set to rise in 2018 following an announcement by government that it will borrow 11 billion cedis in the first quarter.

That notwithstanding, there is an improvement in the banking sector where the total Non-Performing Loans (NPL) of banks has decreased from 22.9 percent in October to 22.7 percent in December.

Also, the total deposits of banks witnessed a major boost after hitting 58.3 billion cedis in November 2017 – a whopping 11.06 percent rise from the 2016 figure.

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There was, however, a decline in the annual growth of the banking sector from 8.6 percent in 2016 to 5.9 percent in December 2017.

The country’s earnings from the export of gold, cocoa and crude oil also witnessed huge rises in the year 2017, with Ghana’s total earnings from traditional exports hitting $13.7 billion as of December 2017.

In terms of imports, the country’s total bill stood at $12.6 billion at the end of 2017.

Ghana's total debt stock now stands at GH¢138.8 billion, according to data released by the Bank of Ghana. Read Full Story