The share of total domestic debt held by Ghana’s banking sector has reduced considerably from 50 per cent in 2016 to 35.2 per cent in 2017, the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has disclosed.
This was contained in the think-tank’s State of the Economy Report 2017 published earlier this month.According to the Report, however, holdings by the non-bank sector increased marginally from 25.3 per cent in 2016 to 26.3 per cent in 2017.
Instructively, foreign investor holdings increased from 21.7 per cent in 2016 to 38.5 per cent in 2017. ISSER indicated that this was as a result of the active participation of foreign investors in medium-term instruments.
Marketable securities increase
The Report also revealed that marketable debt – which are securities that can easily be converted to cash or securities that are sold or redeemed within a year - constituted the largest portion of domestic debt stock, amounting to 80 per cent in 2017 as compared to 72 per cent in 2016.
However, it is interesting to note that from 2012 to 2016, marketable debt as a portion of domestic debt stock has ranged between 69 per cent and 75 per cent.
Non-marketable securities fall
Non-marketable debt, on the other hand, fell from 24.6 per cent to 19.6 per cent, partly due to the implementation of the zero financing policy of the Budget by the Bank of Ghana and the settling of matured debt.
Also, structured domestic bank loans contributed less than 1 per cent to the total domestic debt.
Source: thefinderonline.com