Each Ghanaian Owes $350

Ghana's estimated population currently stands at 22 million people. Out of this population, each Ghanaian owes US$350 to the country's creditors, both internally and externally, as against $359 in 2008.
Ghana's total public debt has declined slightly from US$7,918.1 million, a 54.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008, to US$7.742.4 million, representing 49.2 per cent of GDP for the first quarter of 2009.
Out of this figure (US$7.742.4m), the stock of domestic debt, which stood at GH¢4,778.1 million at the end of last year (2008), increased to GH¢5,083.5 million, representing 23.7 per cent of GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2009.
External debt also stood at US$4,010.2 million at the end of the first quarter of this year (March 2009), up from US$3, 982.6 million (28.1 per cent of GDP) at the end of last year (2008).
This was made known by the Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Paul Acquah, at a press briefing in Accra yesterday.
According to him, provisional banking data on fiscal operations during the first quarter of 2009 indicate that domestic revenue growth continued to be strong at a slower pace than it was at same time the previous year (2008).
Ghana's total revenue and grants for the first quarter of 2009, amounted to GH¢1,308.1 million, representing 6.1 per cent of GDP, compared with GH¢1,129.2 million (6.4 per cent) for the same period in 2008.
"This was however, higher than the historical average of 5.8 per cent of GDP between 2004 and 2008," Dr. Paul Acquah noted.
Dr. Paul Acquah observed that total revenue and grants in year on year terms, increased by 15.8 per cent, compared with 11.0 per cent recorded in 2008.
Grants to the country amounted to GH¢244.3 million (1.1 per cent of GDP) in the first quarter of 2009, as against GH¢225.5 million (1.3 per cent of GDP) recorded for the same period in 2008.
This means the country, in the first quarter of 2009, saw an increase of GH¢18.8 million in grants, as compared to the same period last year.
Ghana's total expenditure, excluding foreign financed capital expenditure for the first quarter of 2009, amounted to GH¢1,249.2 million, representing 5.8 per cent of GDP, compared with GH¢1,265.3 million (7.2 per cent of GDP) for the same period in 2008.
Wages and salaries amounted to GH¢558.5 million, compared with GH¢549.1 million for the same period in 2008.
According to Dr. Paul Acquah, the fiscal operations during the first quarter in 2009, resulted in a deficit of GH¢194.7 million, a 0.9 per cent of GDP (excluding foreign financed capital expenditure), compared with a deficit of GH¢275.6 million for the same period in 2008.
Dr. Acquah said the deficit of GH¢194.7, in addition to a foreign loan repayment of GH¢48.7 million were financed from domestic sources to the tune of GH¢243.4 million, representing 1.1 per cent of GDP.