Debt to GDP up, Borrowing Costs up, More from latest BoG data

What’s to like: Debt to GDP ratio is up to 66.4% from 61% in January but it is still below the 70% psychological level and I hope it continues that way.

What’s not to like: Average lending rate is 32.7%! At this point why bother borrowing? What business will return enough for you to repay and keep something for yourself? Non-performing loans are up to 19.3%. This means almost a fifth of loans are not being serviced. This is up from 14.6% in January. Is there any wonder now why banks are unwilling to lend.

Summary of the Data:

  1. GDP growth rate is 4.9% for Q1 2016.
  2. Inflation as at December 2015 18.4%. Food inflation 8.6%. Non-food inflation 24.1%.
  3. Monetary policy rate 26%.
  4. Interbank lending rate 25.5% as at June 2016.
  5. Average lending rate 32.7% as at June 2016.
  6. Total Exports $5,089.7m. Gold $1,984.6m (39%). Cocoa $1,533.6m (30%). Oil $408.3m (8%) as at June 2016
  7. Total Imports $6,487.6m. Oil $846m (14.8%). Non-oil $5,641.6m as at June 2016
  8. Deficit on cash basis 6.7% of GDP as at December 2015.
  9. Total public debt GH¢105.1bn (66.4% of GDP)
  10. External debt as at May 2016 GH¢61.9bn (39.1% of GDP)
  11. Domestic debt as at May 2016 GH¢43.2bn (27.3% of GDP)
  12. Non-Performing loans (of banks) as at May 2016 19.3%

Download full data here

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