November 30, 2015
Ghana’s public debt stock has risen substantially since it enjoyed HIPC/MDRI debt relief in 2005-2006. The highly expansionary scal position in 2006-2008, nanced by external borrowing, triggered a very rapid deterioration in the country’s debt sustainability. This trend was amplied by the resulting balance of payments pressures and currency depreciation, which led to a revaluation of foreign currency-denominated claims relative to domestic GDP. The debt surge was effectively stemmed when the country’s access to market nancing was closed off due to the global nancial crisis in 2008-2009. Huge increases in the issuance of domestic currency debt, alongside increased borrowing from […]
November 24, 2015
On November 5, 2015, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) organized a Budget Forum to discuss the economic challenges and risks confronting the country and the issues that needed to be addressed in the 2016 Budget. The Forum identified that, in the last three years, the government has not succeeded in improving the fortunes of the country despite setting ambitious targets every year. And despite the 2015 Budget Statement having a transformational agenda as its main theme, there is no evidence that the economy is being transformed. Real GDP growth has decelerated and, indeed, the projected real GDP growth of […]