GRi Business, Economics & Finance 16 – 10 - 2002

 

 

¢120b saved through Index Bond

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 16 October 2002 - The government saved over ¢120b in respect of interest payments between September last year and March as a result of the introduction of the Government of Ghana Index Linked Bond (GGILB).

 

Francis Andoh of the Treasury Department of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) disclosed this on Monday.

 

Contributing to a public forum on the GGILB in Accra, he said it had not been the introduction of the GGILB, government would have paid an interest of ¢157b on short term instruments such as the 91, 182 days Treasury Bill that were in existent.

 

The government, he said, paid an interest of ¢32.2b on the GGILB. Andoh said that following the introduction of the GGILB, there had been a little shift in the country’s debt structure.

 

As at the end of August, 45 per cent of the debt are in the 91-day Treasury Bill, 10.28 per cent in the 1 year bond with 15.33 per cent in the medium term. He described this development as encouraging.

 

Andoh said that although the GGILB had no succeeded as a market instrument, it had done so on the policy front. The instrument has fairly shifted the debt burden and reduced interest payment, he said.

 

He was optimistic that the GGILB when it begins to enjoy public patronage would help in easing the pressure that the government had always been confronted with in the past in terms of interest payments on instruments that it had issued.

 

He said that capacities were being built to ensure that the market were deepened to enable it to become competitive in the fast changing economic environment.

GRi…/

 

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