Ghana has experienced a signigicant a steady increase in public debt since 2012. According the International Monetary Fund (IMF - 11 Jul 2024), large fiscal deficits and the economic slowdown in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic led to an increase in public debt from 63 percent of GDP in 2019 to 92.7 percent of GDP at end-2022. Domestic debt reached 50 percent of GDP in 2022, of which 16 percent of GDP was held by the Bank of Ghana, while public external debt stood at 43.3 percent of GDP. On December 19th 2022, Ghana suspended payments on selected external debts. and subsequently launched a restructuring initiative.

Public debt by types of creditors

Source: IMF, 2023

Public debt 2019-2025 in percentage of GDP

Source: Ministry of Finance (2024) and Bank of Ghana (2025)

Provisional central government and government-guaranteed debt in nominal terms as at end Q3-2024 stood at US$51.00 billion (GH₵807.79 billion), representing 79.2 percent of GDP, an increase of 11.3 percentage points from 67.9 percent recorded for the same period in the previous year (Q3-2023). This comprised external debt of US$31.97 billion (GH₵506.33 billion); 49.6 percent of GDP, and domestic debt of US$19.03 billion (GH₵301.46 billion); 29.6 percent of GDP.

Public debt in nominal terms

Source: Ministry of Finance, 2024

USD-denominated debt continued to account for the largest portion of the external debt portfolio at the end of Q3-2024 (71.1 percent), followed again by EUR-denominated debt (20.3 percent). Debt denominated in Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY), GBP, and Japanese Yen (JPY) represented 3.8 percent, 2.3 percent, and 1.9 percent of the portfolio, respectively, while the remaining share of approximately 0.7 percent was made up of a mix of other currencies.