Government borrows GH¢11.250 million in first quarter

Government has indicated its plans to issue a gross amount of GH¢11.250 million in securities of which GH¢10,149.84 million would be used to rollover maturities.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG), which revealed this in a recent statement signed by its secretary Frances Van-Hein Sackey, on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, said this was not new debt.

It said the remaining GH¢1,100.16 million is to meet government’s financing requirements and buffer for the period.

It mentioned that per the calendar, government aims to build benchmark bonds through the issuance of the 91-day and 182-day Treasury Bills weekly.

Noting also that the 1-year note has been replaced with a 364-day bill, it said that would be issued on a bi-weekly basis in each month through the primary auction, with settlement being the transaction date plus one working day.

It added that while the 2-year note would be issued once a month through the book-building method; the 3-year to 15-year bonds would also be issued through the book-building method based on market conditions.

Ghana’s public debt increased to GH¢170.8 million in September 2018 from GH¢142.5 billion in December 2017.

As a percent of rebased GDP, total public debt increased from 54.1 percent at the end of September 2017 and 55.5 percent at December 2017 to 57.2 percent at the end of September 2018, in large part, reflecting financial sector bailout costs.

The domestic component of the total public debt amounted to GH¢84.2 billion (28.2 percent of rebased GDP and 49.3percent share of total debt), while external debt was GH¢86.6 billion (29.0 percent rebased GDP).