Ghana in debt distress; heading to HIPC – Minority

The Minority in Parliament is accusing the Akufo-Addo administration of mismanaging the economy and increasing public debt.

Ghana’s public debt stands at GH¢145 billion as of February this year, per figures from the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The development means that the government spent about GH¢3.5 billion from September to December last year.

The data puts external debt at GH¢76.9 billion with domestic debt at GH¢68.2 billion.

The total debt is expected to go up in the coming months due to moves by the government to issue two separate bonds to help retire mature debt and also finance some critical projects in the economy.

Speaking to Starr news’ Parliamentary Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Ato Forson described the rate at which the public debt is increasing as alarming.

According to him, within 12 calendar months, the government has added approximately GH¢28billion to the public debt, translating to GH¢2.3billion per month.

“The debt situation is pushing us to a level that if care is not taken Ghana will be classified as HIPC. It is taking us to HIPC. It is in a bad state. Ghana is more or less classified as a country in a debt distress state,” he stated.

In a related development, the Minority also accused the government of doctoring figures in order to reduce the country’s public debt stock.

The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta last year stated that government through prudent management of the economy successfully reduced the country’s debt burden.

But speaking on the floor of Parliament Tuesday on the 2017 Public Debt Report, MP for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo questioned the basis upon which government claims to have reduced the public debt stock saying: “Our budget deficit has been suppressed and all the numbers that we are touting around are not true numbers.”