Frank Bannor, pointed out that, following the attainment of the HIPC completion and external debt relief, Ghana witnessed a remarkable decline in its public debt to GDP ratio, from 182% in 2000 to 32% by the end of 2008.
He stressed that this represents a growth rate, or an increase of about 261.83% in the total public debt stock under the NDC, from 2009-2016.
Bannor stressed that this rate of change indicates that on average, the NDC government added 32.75% debt to Ghana’s debt stock every year between 2009 to 2016.
"The public debt, which stood at $15.3 billion in 2011, increased to $29.2 billion by the end of 2016, indicating a growth rate of 90.85% from 2012 to 2016," he pointed out.He stated that this astronomical increase in the debt stock represents one of the worst management of the public debt in recent times.
*Contrary perception* He maintained that contrary to public perception, this marks a little over one and half increase in the overall public debt stock under the NPP.
This rate of change, he mentioned, represents an increase of about 74.79% in the total public debt stock, compared to a growth of 262% from 2009 to 2016.
“This implies that the debt stock in local currency terms could even rise with no new borrowings," he stated.For example, he pointed out that the public debt of $29.2 billion in 2016 would have been the equivalent of about GHc380 billion today without any additional borrowing.
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