The COVID-19 Pandemic has pushed the country’s deficit and debts to worrying levels, according to statistics presented in the 2021 Budget statement read in Parliament on Friday by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu.
He said the current debt stock is 291.6 billion cedis with 76.1% GDP as compared to 2016 where the debt stock was 122 billion cedis and a GDP of 56.9%.
In explaining what accounted for the debt stock, the Majority Leader said fiscal impact of COVID-19 was GHc 19.7 billion, cost of financial sector clean-up was GHC 21 billion while GHc 12 billion was the cost of Excess Capacity charges paid to IPPs.
He said without the aforementioned factors, debt stock would be targeting GHc 238.9billion with 58.7 of GDP. The revision of growth rate is from an average of 7% between 2017-2019 to 0.9% in 2020, he noted.
Between 2004 and 2008, Ghana’s debt stock increased by 30% under the Kufuor-led NPP Administration.
Between 2008-2012 the debt stock jumped to 269% under the Mills NDC administration and 243% between 2012 and 2016 under the Mahama NDC government. Between 2016 to 2020, the country’s debt stock has risen to 137% under the Akufo-Addo administration.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com
