Ghana Ended 2021 With Public Debt Exceeding 80 Percent Of GDP: Central Bank
GHANA ended 2021 with pubic debt exceeding 80 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the central bank said late Friday.
Bank of Ghana said this in the summary of economic and financial data released after the latest round of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which ended on Friday.
According to the data, the debt stock of Ghana, West Africa’s second largest economy, increased to 351.8 billion Ghana cedis ($58.6bn per the prevailing exchange rate in December) or 80.1 percent of GDP at the end of December 2021.
The latest figures indicate that the government added 730 million cedis ($99.3 million) in new loans to its debts in December after public debts had increased to 341.8 billion cedis ($58.2bn), or 77.8 percent of GDP in September.
The West African gold, cocoa and crude oil exporter has also seen sharp a increase in inflation and a depreciation of the local cedi currency.
The cedi depreciated 7.6 percent in the first two months of 2022 and continues to lose ground against all international traded currencies in the foreign exchange market.
Bank of Ghana increased its benchmark policy rate by 100 basis points to 14.5 percent at its last meeting in January to curb rising inflation.
However, inflation jumped from 13.9 percent in January to 15.7 percent in February with transport fares and commodity prices gaining upward momentum.
The central bank will announce its new measures for economic stability at a press briefing this  Monday.
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