News:
June 7, 2018
Former Deputy Minister of Finance and Ranking member on Finance, Ato Forson had cautioned the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to be cautious about its borrowing life style, which could lead the country being declared Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC).
According to the Ranking member on Finance, the public debt had jumped from one hundred and twenty-two point three billion Ghana cedis to one hundred and forty –two point 6 billion Ghana cedis between December 31, 2016, to December 31, 2017 per the 2017 financial report.
He noted that the debt are excluded of the Energy Sector bond and UT capital bond.
Mr. Ato Forson noted that per his calculations government had increased public sector debt by twenty-eight billion (28,000,000,000) Ghana cedis, which means on the average, the NPP government adds two point three billion Ghana cedis to Ghana’s public debt every month.
Government has borrowed five hundred and six million dollars (GHc 506,000,000) that had not been added to the National debt yet, the former Deputy Finance Minister said.
He further cautioned that if government does not reduce its rate of borrowing to save the country’s debt from growing bigger; “Going by current market exchange rate four point seven Ghana cedis (GHc4.7), our national debt would also be one hundred and seventy billion Ghana cedis (GHc170,000,000,000).
This is a debt we need to settling as Ghanaians as a nation by year ending”.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com