Seth Terkper: Former minister punches holes in BoG’s Report on Ghana’s public debt

- A former minister of finance, Seth Terkper, has expressed doubts about Ghana's current public debt figure

- According to him, the current public debt is unlikely to be 59.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as claimed by the Bank of Ghana

- He explained that it was because both the 2019 Debt Report and the International Monetary Fund show the end-2019 debt level as 63%

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A former minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, has argued that Ghana’s public debt cannot be 59.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as announced by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

He explained that it can only be so if the government is intent on continuing with the controversial “parallel” fiscal reporting that it denies.

Terkper indicated that both the 2019 Debt Report and the International Monetary Fund show the end-2019 debt level as 63%.

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For that reason, he went on, the likelihood of a substantial decline to 59.3% is unlikely.

Per a classfmonline.com report, the BoG itself realized a fall in revenue as well as higher expenditures, high borrowing and a slowdown in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Tepker went on to say that the "MPC statement may not include the “exceptional” expenditures that Ministry of Finance (MOF) now includes in only footnotes. However, it is worth discussing in a banking context, even if the fiscal data and text are from MOF since they relate to the Consolidated Fund and other Public Accounts at BoG, unless some MOF records do not form part of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) initiative and, therefore, not visible to BOG."

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have raised concerns about Ghana’s current debt levels.

According to the IMF resident representative to Ghana, Dr. Albert Touna-Mama, the country is in a very dangerous situation due to its public debt which currently stands at GHC215 billion.

Dr. Touna-Mama explained that Ghana’s current debt ratio in relation to revenue is about 30%, which is almost double that of its peers, the average of which is about 18%.

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Source: YEN.com.gh