Opinions of Friday, 18 March 2016

Columnist: Kusi, Duncan

Ghana's public debt plus external debt stands at $44.7 billion

I write to apologize to readers of the article: "Ghana's debt is $37.68 billion but not $24 billion.

It was wrongly calculated so anyone who came across it should forgive me, it was rather higher than that.

According to CIA website, Ghana's GDP in 2015 was $37.68 billion.

Ghana's pubic debt was 76% of the GDP. GDP means gross domestic products which also means all that Ghana produced and sold within the country in 2015.

Ghana's external debt is $17.2 billion

Therefore if the public debt is 76% of GDP which was $37.68 billion in 2015, calculations would give us something around $27.5 billion as public debt. If we add up the public and external debts, they would give us about $44.7 billion as our country' total debt as at today.

Public debt $ 27.5 billion
External debt $ 17.2 billion
Add $ 44.7 billion

If I am wrong, then CIA is also wrong so please visit the website and do your own calculations.

If this information which has been written on CIA library is inaccurate, then the government should contact them to remove it.

God bless us.

Sources : IMF, World Bank, CIA