Interest payments hit ¢10.6bn in quarter 1; domestic interest payments constitute 82.7% – BoG

Domestic interest payments accounted for 82.7% of the total interest payments in the first quarter of 2022.

According to the May 2022 Monetary Policy Report by the Bank of Ghana, external interest payments constituted the remaining 17.3%.

In all, total Interest Payments amounted to ¢10.608.billion over the review period, higher than the envisioned target of ¢10.037 billion.

However, total interest payments constituted 63.8% of domestic revenue, down from 64.6% recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.

Meanwhile, government total expenditures and arrears clearance for the first three months of 2022 amounted to ¢26.953 billion, about 5.4% of Gross Domestic Product.

This fell below the target of ¢30.524 billion (6.1% of GDP). This outturn represented a year-on-year growth of 16.1%.

Compensation of Employees including wages and salaries, pensions & gratuities, and other wage related expenditure was estimated at ¢7.555 billion, 15.7% lower than the target of ¢8.960 billion.

Use of Goods and Services for the period under review amounted to ¢163.5 million, lower than the

Grants to Other Government Units, made up of National Health Fund, Education Trust Fund (GET Fund), Road Fund, Energy Fund, District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), Retention of IGFs, transfer to GNPC and other earmarked funds, amounted to GH¢4.459 billion, lower than the target of ¢5.596 billion.

This represented a shortfall of 20.3% from the target, but recorded a year-on-year growth of 34.8%.

Other Expenditure, made up of ESLA transfers, COVID-19 related expenditure, and other critical spending, for the first three months of 2022, amounted to ¢2.225 billion.

Source: Ghana News