President John Mahama has dismissed suggestions that Ghana is highly indebted, explaining a misunderstanding of an agreement with the IMF had led to that erroneous idea.

“We have a debt ceiling with the IMF and it was mistaken to mean that we are highly indebted. In the new calculation of our public debt and all the debt of state-owned enterprises have been added to the public debt. It didn’t use to be so, formerly you calculate the debt the country owes separately from state-owned enterprises”, he explained on Monday.

The President was reacting earlier criticism by analysts that that Ghana was returning to the categorization of a High Indebted Poor country due to poor management of the economy.

Joy Business in April this year reported that Ghana might be a few steps shy of being classified as a high-risk debt distress country given the country's documented debt position.

Responding to a question at a press conference in Washington DC, on the status of Ghana's 1 billon Eurobond, IMF's Communication Director, Gerry Rice, said the borrowing should be done in a manner not to escalate Ghana's indebtedness.

“For countries at high-risk distress like Ghana, reducing the debt burden and associated vulnerability is a priority so the authorities have to be very selective with regards to new non-concessional borrowing since that can escalate," Gerry Rice had said.

However, speaking to a gathering in the Central Region, President Mahama said the country was rather making economic gains.

“We are increasing revenue but at the same time we are holding expenditure. We are not reducing expenditure, we are holding it down so that revenue can catch up and exceed expenditure,” he said.