Sep 19, 2012 at 10:36am

Ghana’s stock of domestic debt soared by over two billion cedis in the second quarter of this year.

According to new figures released from the Bank of Ghana (BoG), as at the end of July of this year, the country’s domestic debt stood at GH¢13.7 billion, up from GH¢11.8 billion in December 2011.

Ghana’s external debt stock however declined marginally from US$7.8 billion in December 2011 to US$7.7 billion at the end of July 2012. According to the central bank the total public debt at the end of July 2012 was 28.3 billion cedis equivalent to 44.4 per cent of GDP.

This figure is up from 42.6 per cent of GDP as compared to the end of December last year. Despite the increase the bank of Ghana says the swell is well within the debt sustainability threshold of 60 per cent of GDP.

Meanwhile, total government expenditure including arrears and other outstanding payments also shot up to 12.5 billion cedis as compared to GH¢7.8 billion last year. The major components for the first eight months of the year were: wages, salaries and related payments of GH¢6.2 billion, domestic interest payments of GH¢1.1 billion and external interest payments of GH¢300.6 million.

Government fiscal operations during the period, therefore resulted in an overall cash deficit of GH¢4.1 billion.

By: Citifmonline.com/Ghana