Public debt increased to 76.1% of GDP in 2020 – Minister

Majority leader in Parliament Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has stated that the country’s public debt has increased from 56.9% of GDP in 2016 to 76.1% of GDP in 2020.

Presenting the 2021 budget the Minister said, the provisional debt stock as at end of December 2020 stood at a nominal figure of GH¢291,614 million, representing 76.1 per cent of GDP compared to GH¢217,991 million, equivalent to 62.4 per cent of GDP in 2019.

“Mr Speaker, the total debt stock mix was made up of a provisional figure of GH¢141,780.60 million for external debt and GH¢149,833.89 million for domestic debt, accounting for approximately 48.6 per cent and 51.4 per cent of the total public debt stock, respectively. As a percentage of GDP, external and domestic debt represented 36.99 per cent and 39.09 per cent respectively,” he said

He also explained that “the total public debt has increased from GH¢122 billion (56.9% of GDP) in 2016 to GH¢ 291.6 billion (76.1% of GDP) at the end of December 2020. Included in the debt stock and the debt/GDP ratio at the end of 2020 are the following non-recurrent burdens that we had to deal with as a matter of urgency: Fiscal Impact of COVID-19 – GH¢ 19.7 billion; Cost of Financial Sector Clean up – GH¢ 21 billion; Cost of Excess Capacity Charges paid to IPPs – GH¢ 12 billion; The impact of the reduction in growth from an average of 7% (2017-2019) to 0.9% in 2020.”