Bank of Ghana Governor announces: Ghana’s public debt is now Gh¢56 billion

• Posted on April 3, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Ghana’s total public debt is now at Gh¢56 billion, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Kofi Wampah has announced.

The country’s public debt saw a leap from Gh¢51.6 billion in December to hit almost Gh¢56 billion as of February 2014, the Governor told journalists Wednesday.

Some experts are fret about the country’s increasing debt stock fearing, that might make it difficult to clear on time in the near future.

Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia at a public lecture last week also warned that the trend of borrowing by Government could have long term ill consequences on the economy.

Addressing the media at the Monitory Policy Committee meeting to announce a new policy rate, Dr. Kofi Wampah however, said there is no cause for alarm.

“I don’t think that the debt situation of Ghc55 [billion] is bad. It is the trajectory and how quickly it is growing that we need to look at. 50 or 55 percent is not entirely out of this world.”

According to him, “it is how it is moving and whether the trajectory will take you toward a critical level; that is what you need to look at and I think that that is what is of concern to both the minister of finance and also to the Central Bank. And that is why there’s this fiscal consolidation.”

Touching on the foreign exchange measures introduced by the central bank recently, Dr. Wampah indicated the current rate of depreciation which is pegged at 17 percent as at the end of March, could have been worse if the measures were not introduced.

-joynews