New figures from the Bank of Ghana(BoG) has shown that the country’s total public debt hit GHS137.2 billion in May.
By this, the debt-to-GDP ratio is now at 67.5%. This was contained in the economic and financial data released by the Central Bank at the end of its Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
According to the report, the debt stock increased by GHS9.4 billion in three months from GHS127.8 billion to ¢137.2 billion.
The External component of the debt was $17.1 billion, while domestic debt was at about ¢63.9 billion.
In all, the GHS137 billion debt stock recorded at the end of May was more than the GHS105 billion recorded in the same period for last year.
2017 Bonds issuance calendar
For the first three quarter of the bonds issuance calendar, government is seeking to raise GHS57 billion through bonds and treasury bills.
Government has already raised about GHS17.4 billion. In the second quarter, government raised GHS22.2 billion, while it targets 17.4 billion in the third quarter of the year.
Export earnings
According to the Bank of Ghana data, total earnings from exports went up from 6.5 billion dollars in January to June 2016, to 7.1 billion dollars in same period in 2017. This showed an improvement in earnings from export.
Earnings from the export of Gold hit a little over 3 billion dollars while exports of oil and cocoa reached about 1.2 billion dollars and 1.7 billion dollars respectively.
Imports
According to the data, the cost of total imports for the first six months of the year was 5.7 billion dollars.
Import of oil recorded 733 million dollars, while non-oil imports was at 4.9 billion dollars.
Banking sector performance
Non Performing Loans (NPL), which is the loans that are suspected to go bad saw an increase.
The figure went up from 19.3% as at May 2016 to 21.7% in May 2017.
Total Assets in the banking sector hit GHS 84.1 billion, representing a 27.3% growth.
Total deposits also saw an increase from 24.5% to GHS53.2 billion.
Loan advances was at GHS36.5 billion after a 16.4% growth compared to May 2016.
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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana