Government To Borrow GH¢1.040 Billion In Fresh Funds In 4th Quarter 2021

According to the government’s current Issuance Calendar, the government will borrow GH¢1.040 billion in new issuance to cover its finance needs in the fourth quarter of this year.

This could signal a decrease in government borrowing.

The government intends to issue a total of GH¢21.17 billion for the time period in question, with GH¢20.129 billion going to rollover maturing investments.

The majority of the cash to be mobilized, as is customary, will come from the 91-day Treasury bill, a strategy that has helped decrease foreign debt but may prevent the private sector from accessing domestic funding. The additional monies will be used to pay government projects stated in the 2021 Budget for the fourth quarter of this year.

During the period, the government would borrow up to GH¢10.8 billion in 91-day T-bills, which is less than the previous quarter.

It will be followed by a three-year bond, which will raise a total of 2.3 billion dollars. A total of $1.3 billion dollars will be raised on Thursday, October 14, 2021.

GH¢1.97 billion is however expected to be raised from 182-day Treasury bill. The month with the biggest amount to be issued will be November 2021, where about GH¢750 million of the short term securities will be issued.

GH¢1.8 billion is however expected to be raised from the 6-year bond, whilst GH¢1.2 billion is expected to be mobilized from a 10-year bond to be issued in the month of November 2021.

The 2-year and 7-year bonds are expected to raise GH¢750 million each.

Per the calendar, the 91-day and 182-day will be issued weekly, the 364-day bill through bi-weekly and the securities of 2-year up to 10-year will be issued through the book-building method.

Government says it expects the 4th quarter of 2021 calendar will meet the requirements of market participants, assuring all stakeholders and the public that it continues to strive for greater predictability and transparency in the domestic bond market.

 Public debt hits GH¢335.9bn in July 2021

Ghana’s total public debt stock went by GH¢3.5 billion in two months to hit GH¢335.9 billion ($57.9 billion) at the end of July 2021, the Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data revealed.

This was equivalent to 76.4% of Gross Domestic Product.

However, the rate of increase has slowed down, compared to the GH¢27.8 billion fresh funds added in April and May 2021.

The government had indicated in the Issuance Calendar in July 2021 that its borrowing will slow down in the third quarter of this year [July 2021 to September 2021] as it’s expected to borrow less than a billion cedi for the entire three months.