Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said that the current debt sustainability analysis conducted has revealed that Ghana is now considered to be in high risk of debt distress. 

According to him, the sustainability of Ghana’s debt has been continuously affected by the negative impact of exchange rate depreciation, particularly on external debt, as well as the crystallization of significant contingent liabilities in recent years.

“Despite the heightened debt levels, government remains committed to ensuring that debt is brought to sustainable levels over the medium to long-term. To this end, we will implement a debt exchange programme to address the challenges identified in the portfolio in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders including the Ghanaian public, investor community and development partners”, he said.

He further noted that government will continue to strengthen its oversight of all State Owned Enterprises, in particular, financial and energy sectors.

He added that the reforms and discipline at the SoEs will reduce potential fiscal risks from incidence of contingent liabilities.

The Minister continued that in line with government’s objective to restore debt sustainability, concessional loans will continue to be the preferred financing option for projects.

“We, however, recognise that there may be cases where non-concessional borrowing may be required to finance critical transformative projects. Such financing will be determined within limits that are consistent with our debt sustainability programme”.

He added “we will inform this House, at the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review, of projects that will be financed within our non-concessional borrowing limits. Accordingly, we will not publish any list of projects to be financed from external non-concessional loans in this budget, previously titled ‘Appendix 10C’”.