The latest data from the central bank issued to the media on Saturday said that Ghana’s total public debt increased to 658.6 billion Ghana cedis (53.1 billion U.S. dollars) as of February 2024 from 611.2 billion cedis (52.1 billion dollars) in December 2003.
The total debt stock is 62.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the May 2024 Summary of Economic and Financial Data released by the Bank of Ghana ahead of Monday’s Monetary Policy Committee press conference.
The total debt comprised an external debt of 380 billion cedis (30.6 billion dollars) and a domestic debt of 278.6 billion cedis.
Ghana ended 2023 with a total public debt of 611.2 billion cedis, which increased to 636 billion cedis in January and then shot up again to 658.6 billion cedis in February, with the government borrowing 18.5 billion cedis from the domestic market during the first two months of 2024.
The increase in the external debt stock was largely due to the depreciation of the local cedi against the U.S. dollar during the period under review.
In recent years, Ghana has been experiencing an economic crisis, characterized by ballooning public debt, high inflation, exchange rate volatility, and unemployment. The country secured a $3 billion U.S. dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund in May last year, hoping to revive the economy.
Ghana received a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) on debt treatment from its Official Creditor Committee on Thursday, paving the way for a loan of 360 million U.S. dollars from the IMF.
The central bank’s official average exchange rate in February was one U.S. dollar to 12.46 Ghana cedis, compared with one U.S. dollar to 11.88 Ghana cedis in December 2023.