The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that more than half of Ghana’s total revenues and more than 70 percent of the nation’s tax revenues are used in servicing debts.
Speaking at the launch of Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme on Monday, December 5, 2022, the Finance Minister said “The Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) demonstrated unequivocally that Ghana’s public debt is unsustainable, and that the government may not be able to fully service its debt down the road if no action is taken. Indeed, debt servicing is now absorbing more than half of total government revenues and almost 70% of tax revenues, while our total public debt stock, including that of State-Owned Enterprises and all, exceeds 100% of our GDP. This is why we are today announcing the debt exchange which will help in restoring our capacity to service debt.”
The Minister further posited that the debt includes the “Covid-19 pandemic, rising global food prices, rising crude oil & energy prices; and the Russia-Ukraine war adversely affected Ghana’s macroeconomy, with spillovers to the financial sector.”
“The combination of adverse external shocks have exposed Ghana to a surge in inflation, a large exchange rate depreciation and stress on the financing of the budget, which taken together have put our public debt on an unsustainable path,” the Minister added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana