The Ministry of Finance says it expects an improvement in Ghana’s local currency sovereign credit ratings to enhance engagement with external creditors on its debt treatment.

This comes after S&P Global Ratings on Friday, February 24, 2023, raised Ghana’s local currency sovereign credit ratings from selective default (SD) to ‘CCC+/C’.

“This acknowledges the completion of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme with a successful delivery of new securities to bondholders. In doing so, the selective default is substantially cured,” the Ministry said in a press release.

It reiterated the important role of external creditors to the country’s long-term macroeconomic stability, saying “Government of Ghana takes this opportunity to assure our external creditors of their equal importance to the Republic of Ghana.

“We will, therefore, continue to work together to advance the progress of our external debt treatment.”

Outcome of the Government’s Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) upon the recommendation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had revealed that the country’s public debt, both external and domestic, was unsustainable.

In that regard, the Ministry of Finance on December 19, 2022, announced a suspension of all debt service payments under certain categories of external debt, pending an orderly restructuring of the affected obligations.

This suspension includes the payments on Eurobonds; commercial term loans; and on most bilateral debt.

It, however, excluded payments of multilateral debt, new debts (whether multilateral or otherwise) contracted after December 19, 2022 or debts related to certain short term trade facilities.