[ 2012-04-13 ]

Ghana's external debt falls to 7.6 billion dollars
Accra, April 13, GNA - Ghana's external debt stock
declined marginally by 3.3 per cent to 7.6 billion
dollars at the end of February 2012 compared to
7.8 billion dollars at the end of December 2011,
Central Bank Governor Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said in
Accra on Friday.

The stock of domestic debt, however, went up by
6.7 per cent in the first two months of the year
to GH˘12.6 billion.

Addressing a press conference to announce the
decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC),
Mr Amissah-Arthur said the total public debt stock
was estimated at GH˘25.3 billion as at the end of
February 2012, up from GH˘24 billion recorded at
the end of December 2011.

As a ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the
total public debt increased to 43 per cent of GDP
at the end of February 2012, from 42.6 per cent of
GDP at the end of December 2011.

Mr Amissah-Arthur said fiscal data from the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning showed
that total revenue and grants for the first
quarter of 2012 amounted to GH˘ 3.5 billion, a
growth of 25.1 per cent over the outturn for the
same period in 2011.

Total tax revenue amounted to GH˘ 2.7 billion and
was 45.8 per cent higher than the outturn of GH˘
1.8 billion recorded during the same period in
2011.

He said disbursements of grants during the first
quarter amounted to GH˘ 265.8 million.

Total expenditure (including payments made for
outstanding commitments) amounted to

GH˘4.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012, out
of which recurrent expenditure totalled GH˘2.6
billion against a target of GH˘2.7 billion, driven
mainly by higher levels of emoluments.

Domestically-financed capital investment amounted
to GH˘ 427.6 million while foreign-financed
capital expenditure amounted to GH˘ 178.9 million,
62.8 per cent lower than the target of GH˘ 480.9
million.

These developments resulted in an overall budget
deficit on cash basis (including divestiture and
discrepancy) of GH˘835.3 million (equivalent to
1.2 per cent of GDP), against budget target of GH˘
916.5 million (equivalent to 1.3% of GDP), which
was financed from domestic and foreign sources.

Mr Amissah-Arthur said Net Domestic Financing
amounted to GH˘ 690.7 million, against the target
of GH˘ 745.1 million while financing from foreign
sources was GH˘ 264.8 million, against a target of
GH˘291 million as well as loan repayments amounted
to GH˘120.2 million against a target of GH˘ 206
million.

The Governor said the preliminary estimate of
total merchandise exports for the first three
months of 2012 was 3.8 billion dollars, indicating
a year-on-year growth of 22.8 per cent.

He said the growth in export earnings continued to
be driven by gold, cocoa beans and crude oil.

Exports of gold amounted to 1.5 billion dollars,
cocoa beans 939.8 million dollars and crude oil
689.6 million dollars.

Other exports, including non-traditional exports,
amounted to 675.2 million dollars during the
period.

Total merchandise imports provisionally amounted
to 4.0 billion dollars in the first quarter of
2012, representing a year-on-year growth of 19.8
per cent. Oil imports, including crude, gas and
refined products amounted to 457.2 million dollars
compared with 692.2 million dollars for the same
period of 2011.

Total non-oil imports amounted to 3.6 billion
dollars of which capital imports was 781.2 million
dollars, intermediate imports 1.7 billion dollars,
consumption imports 775.8 million dollars and
others 251.8 million dollars.

These developments in the merchandise trade
resulted in a trade deficit of 202.1 million
dollars compared with a deficit of 246.1 million
dollars for the same period in 2011.

The level of Gross International Reserves which
stood at 5.4 billion dollars in December 2011,
declined to 4.6 billion dollars in January 2012,
rose to 4.7 billion dollars in February 2012 and
fell to 4.6 billion dollars in March 2012.

Source - GNA

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