The multilateral debt component of the external debt stood at $7.9 billion at the end of September 2020, data from the Bank of Ghana has revealed.

This is an increase of $117.31 million (1.5%), compared to the level of $7.81 billion recorded at the end of the second quarter of 2020.

The debt was expected to have shot up in the full year of 2020 due to the COVID-19 impact on the economy, which resulted in increased borrowing from the Bretton Wood institutions.

The multilateral institutions include the World Bank, the International Monetary and African Development Bank.

According to the Bank of Ghana, the multilateral debt accounted for 32.7% of the total debt stock at the end of the third quarter of 2020.

However, debts owed the International Capital Market stood at $10. 2 billion, representing the highest percentage share of 42.1% of the total external debt stock as of the end of September 2020.

This is compared to 37.9% for the same period in 2019. This stock position depicted a marginal decline of $15.99 million (0.2%) compared to the level of $10.2 billion registered at the end of the previous month.

The bilateral component of external debt stock for the third quarter of 2020 was $1.23 billion and represented a share of 5.1 percent of the total external debt stock, compared with 5.9% for the same period in 2019.

On the other hand, commercial debts at the end of September 2020 totalled $2.2 billion, and constituted 9.4 percent of the total external debt stock.

This was $57.87 million, 2.6% higher than the level of $2.2 billion recorded in the second quarter.

Other concessional debts totalled $1.62 billion at end of the third quarter and constituted 6.7% of the external debt stock.

This indicated a decline of $26.69 million (1.6%) compared with the previous quarter’s position of US$1.65 billion.

COVID-19 spending pushes Ghana’s debt to GH¢286 billion

Ghana’s public debt stock jumped from GH¢274.1 billion in September 2020 to GH¢286.9 billion in November 2020, according to the latest Bank of Ghana’s Summary of Economic and Financial Data.

This is equivalent to $50.2 billion and represents 74.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (total value of goods and services produced in an economy within a period).

According to the data, the external component of the debt stood at ¢139.6 billion ($24.4 billion), about 36.2% of GDP.