Gh¢70bn debt stock: Each Ghanaian owes Gh¢2,800 - Minority

Every Ghanaian including a child delivered today owes Gh¢2,800 due to Ghana’s public debt stock which stands at Gh¢70 billion from Gh¢9.5 bn, according to the Minority in Parliament.

The country’s fiscal deficit and current account deficit have all escalated since 2008, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) minority in Parliament said at a press conference Thursday.

The Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu who addressed the press, said: “The public debt stock is over GH¢70billion from GH¢9.5billion in December 2008. Even at GH¢70billion it means each Ghanaian, including the child delivered as I speak now, owes GH¢2,800.ØØ.”

He added: “Last year at this time the burden for every Ghanaian was GH¢2,000. One year on, the debt per capita has increased by 40%, no thanks to “yentie obi ara” government.

“The 2008 debt stock of GH¢9.5billion represented 33% of GDP. Today, 6 years into the Mills-Mahama administration the GH¢70billion debt stock is almost 7½ times or indeed 636% increase in the debt stock. The GH¢70billion figure means our debt stock has risen to 60.8% of GDP as at September 2014.”

The MP for Suame lamented that Ghana is “over borrowing and astronomically increasing our debt pile up which has crossed the 60% threshold and that should be extremely worrying as it shall, before long, plunge us into the league of countries with high risk of debt distress.

“These represent the gory circumstances of our economic fundamentals and if these in the eyes of President Mahama, represent bright medium-term prospects of the economy which must be secured, then we need God Almighty to rescue us.”