Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu temporary acting in the capacity of Finance Minister has revealed that Ghana’s debt stock hit GH¢ 291.6 billion at the end of December 2020.
Delivering the Budget and Economic Policy to Parliament on Friday, the MP for Suame said, “The total public debt has increased from GH¢122 billion (56.9% of GDP) in 2016 to GH¢ 291.6 billion (76.1% of GDP) at the end of December 2020”.
Sharing insights into the country’s swelling debt stock, the minister motioned;
“Included in the debt stock and the debt/GDP ratio at the end of 2020 are the following non-recurrent burdens that we had to deal with as matter of urgency: fiscal Impact of COVID-19 – GH¢ 19.7 billion; cost of Financial Sector Clean up – GH¢ 21 billion; cost of Excess Capacity Charges paid to IPPs – GH¢ 12 billion; the impact of the reduction in growth from an average of 7% (2017-2019) to 0.9% in 2020.
“If these expenditures are excluded and the drop in GDP growth in 2020, primarily attributable to COVID-19, is taken into account, the total stock of debt for 2020 would have been approximately GHS239.9 billion, implying a dent to GDP ratio of 58.7%.”
