Ghana's debt stock hits GHS286bn as second wave of COVID-19 outbreak looms

Ghana's debt stock hits GHS286bn as second wave of COVID-19 outbreak looms

- According to data from the Statistical Service, Ghana’s real GDP growth contracted in the third quarter of 2020

- The country’s debt stock ballooned from 62.4% in 2019 to 74.4% in 2020

- Domestic debt was GH¢147.3 billion (38.2 percent of GDP), while external debt was GHS139.6 billion (36.2 percent of GDP)

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Ghana's debt stock is now GHS286.9 billion, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Ernest Addison, has said.

Addressing journalists in Accra on Monday, February 2, 2021, after the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting, Addison attributed the rise in debt stock to the country’s “elevated fiscal path.”

Ghana's debt stock hits GHS286bn as second wave of COVID-19 outbreak looms
Image credit: Bank of Ghana
Source: Facebook

This, he said impacted the public debt stock which will rise to GHS286.9 billion, representing 74.4% at the end of November 2020 compared to 62.4 percent of GDP (GHS218.2 billion) at the end of December 2019.

The domestic debt was GH¢147.3 billion (38.2 percent of GDP), while external debt was GHS139.6 billion (36.2 percent of GDP) of the total debt stock.

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On the country’s growth, Addison stated that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic dampened the country’s strong growth of 6.5% in 2019, and 4.9% in the first quarter of 2020.

“However, following the lifting of restrictions and strong policy support, signs of recovery begun to emerge in the third quarter,” he stated.

According to data released by the Ghana Statistical Service, real GDP growth provisionally contracted by 1.1 percent in the third quarter of 2020, compared to the 3.2 percent contraction recorded in the second quarter.

In particular, non-oil GDP recorded a more measured contraction of 0.4 percent in the third quarter of 2020, compared to a contraction of 3.4 percent in the second quarter.

The governor therefore warned that the prospects of a sharp fiscal correction in 2021 now look unlikely, amidst the second wave of the pandemic which will be requiring additional spending to provide testing, vaccines, etc.

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In other news, Portia Kissi Adu, a Ghanaian who travelled to neighbouring Nigeria recently, has made a horrifically disheartening revelation about Ghana’s COVID-19 fight.

Adu said she travelled to the most populous African country with fake COVID-19 test results.

Adu’s predicament began when the officials of the airline rejected her COVID-19 test results from the renowned Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

The officials forced her to take another test which she agreed to avoid being late for her appointment in Lagos, Nigeria.

Adu said she was shocked to the marrow when the officials instructed her to board the flight, and moments later brought to her printed COVID-19 test results without any sample taken from her.

Narrating her ordeal to Accra-based Starr FM, monitored by YEN.com.gh on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, she said: “When I boarded the flight, a gentleman brought my results and asked that I pay GHS700 which I obliged to pay via mobile money.”

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Source: YEN.com.gh

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