Ghana’s public debt increased by about GH¢5.2 billion from April to June this year.
This measures about 9 percent increase in the debt level from GH¢58.4billion to GH¢63.6billion.
This was revealed by the Bank of Ghana at its Monetary Policy Committee press conference yesterday where it announced it had maintained the policy rate at 19%.
In terms of the ratio of the debt to GDP, it was at 55.4% at the end of June, same as it was at the end of March.
The debt stock level has increased by about GH¢11.5billion in the first half of the year representing a 22% increase.
Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Henry Kofi Wampah said “of the total public sector debt, domestic debt constituted 43.9 percent and external debt was 56.1 percent.”
Meanwhile government again missed its revenue target but managed to cut down on expenditure.
Revenue and grants for the first half of the year hit GHS13.3billion against a target of GHS14billion.
According to Dr Wampah, “of this out turn, domestic revenue was GH¢12.9 billion, below the target of GH¢13.3billion.
Total tax revenue amounted to GH¢10.2 billion, lower than the target of GH¢10.5billion and non-tax revenues was GH¢2.6 billion, compared to the budgeted target ofGH¢2.7 billion.”
Expenditure was at GH¢19.3billion against a target of 19.8billion. Dr Wampah indicates “Compensation of employees was GH¢5.9 billion compared to a target of GH¢6.3 billion.” This is about 57.8% of tax revenue.
Interest payments totaled GH¢3.7 billion, against a target of GH¢4 billion.
Provisional estimates shows the budget deficit for the first half of the year stood at 5.3percent of GDP against a target of 5.1percent.
This is however lower than a deficit of 5.6% recorded for the same period last year.
By: Anim Kwaku Boadu/citifmonline.com/Ghana