Ghana’s total public debt now stands at GH¢112.4 billion as at September 2016 which translates into about 67.4 percent of GDP, according to data released by the central bank ahead of its 73rd regular Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
The data showed that between January and September of this year alone, more than GH¢13 billion was added to the total public debt stock which stood at GH¢98.8 billion in January.
The growing public debt stock is once again nudging the country back to the 70 percent of GDP unsustainable debt threshold.
Given that Ghana has a population of about 27 million, it could be said that high public debt if it were to be shared about Ghanaians would see every Ghanaian owing GH¢4,100. This figure is a sharp rise from that of January where the debt levels was about GH¢3,659 per Ghanaian.
The public debt composition is dominated by external debt which makes up about GH¢65 billion, representing about 39 percent of GDP and domestic debt of GH¢47.4 billion, representing about 28.4 percent of GDP.
As the country heads to the polls next month, the desire by the ruling government to appease voters could lead to excess expenditure which could be detrimental to the public purse.
Source: B&FT
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