Government will borrow ¢1.040 billion as fresh issuance to meet its financing requirements in the 4th quarter of this year, its latest Issuance Calendar has revealed.

This may indicate that government borrowing is reducing.

For the period in question, government plans to issue a gross amount of ¢21.17 billion, of which ¢20.129 billion is to rollover maturating investments.

As usual, majority of the funds to be mobilized will come from the 91-day Treasury bill, a move that has helped reduce foreign debt, but rather could have crowded out the private sector from access to financing on the domestic market. The fresh issuance is expected to finance government projects for the last quarter of this year outlined in the 2021 Budget.

For the statistics, the government will borrow as much as ¢10.8 billion of the 91-day T-bills during the period, lower than the previous quarter.

It will be followed by the 3-year bond in which a total of ¢2.3 billion will be mobilized. ¢1.3 billion of that amount will be raised this Thursday 14th October, 2021.

¢1.97 billion is however expected to be raised from 182-day Treasury bill. The month with the biggest amount to be issued will be November 2021, where about ¢750 million of the short term securities will be issued.

¢1.8 billion is however expected to be raised from the 6-year bond, whilst ¢1.2 billion is expected to be mobilized from a 10-year bond to be issued in the month of November 2021.

The 2-year and 7-year bonds are expected to raise ¢750 million each.

Per the calendar, the 91-day and 182-day will be issued weekly, the 364-day bill through bi-weekly and the securities of 2-year up to 10-year will be issued through the book-building method.

Government says it expects the 4th quarter of 2021 calendar will meet the requirements of market participants, assuring all stakeholders and the public that it continues to strive for greater predictability and transparency in the domestic bond market.

 Public debt hits ¢335.9bn in July 2021

Ghana’s total public debt stock went by ¢3.5 billion in two months to hit ¢335.9 billion ($57.9 billion) at the end of July 2021, the Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data revealed.

This was equivalent to 76.4% of Gross Domestic Product.

However, the rate of increase has slowed down, compared to the ¢27.8 billion fresh funds added in April and May 2021.

The government had indicated in the Issuance Calendar in July 2021 that its borrowing will slow down in the third quarter of this year [July 2021 to September 2021] as it’s expected to borrow less than a billion cedi for the entire three months.