Second Round of Domestic Debt Restructuring Offing -Finance Minister Announces

Second Round of Domestic Debt Restructuring Offing -Finance Minister Announces

Ken Ofori-Atta, the country’s finance minister, has made hints that a second round of domestic debt restructuring is about to take place.

He claims that even though the restructuring of domestic debts totaling around GH 98 billion was finished in February, there are still ongoing talks to restructure domestic debt instruments totaling about GH 123 billion.

As part of the ongoing IMF/World Bank spring meetings in the US, Mr. Ofori-Atta informed stakeholders about the macroeconomic developments and impending public debt restructuring.

“In February we successfully completed the first pillar of our domestic debt exchange programme, we realized that there was no other alternative to a full domestic debt exchange,” he told stakeholders.

“The February DDEP covers GHS 98bn of our domestic debt and we expect the rest of our debt instruments to be included in the perimeter of the domestic debt to be exchanged,” he added.

The next round of debt exchange will have an impact on a number of debt instruments, including pension fund holdings, coco-bills, US$ local bonds, local currency loans, and the government’s debt to the Bank of Ghana, which is estimated to be worth GHS 123 billion.

But Ken Ofori-Atta assures that Treasury bills won’t be impacted.

“Talk of treasury bills, it has been excluded to preserve financial stability and ensure government funding.”

Government in December at the start of its first domestic debt exchange programme had indicated it could exchange more domestic debt stating “it intended to exchange domestic non-marketable debt and Cocoa bills, under comparable terms at a later stage”