There’s still room to borrow more despite Ghana’s ¢200bn debt – NPP Communicator

A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) communication team, Eric Amoako Twum, says Ghana’s economic indicators show there is still room for the government to borrow more despite the rising public debt stock of the country,

The Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) latest economic data published has shown that the country’s total public debt is 2 billion cedis less 200 billion cedis.

The figure represents some 57.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as of March 2019, the BoG report indicated.

The data, published last Friday evening, showed Ghana added 21.4 billion cedis to the public debt in the first three months of 2019.

It however indicated there is an increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) making Ghana one of the most promising investments destinations.

Commenting on the issue on TV3’s New Day Monday, Mr Twum said it is appropriate to first interrogate the figures of the BoG properly and know what exactly the money was being used for before raising any alarm.

He explained the figures show government could still borrow more.

“The good thing for me is the fact that because of the rebasing of the economy, we have a situation where what most economists use as an indicator, if your debt is too high, points to the fact that the debt to GDP ratio is hovering around 55% or so (sic), what it means is that we still have some fiscal space to be able to borrow”, he argued.

Mr Twum who is a former Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Exports Promotion Authority, however said that the borrowing will have to be “advisedly and wisely” to be able support government infrastructure.

He argued that in a larger picture, the economic indicators point to an economy that is on the right track.

He said he would have wished the conservation about the economy started with the increase in FDI, noting there is a history to the country’s public debt stock.

He observed that it took a great effort from the Akufo-Addo-led government to wean the country off the International Monetary Fund programme and still made gains by way of increased FDI.