GHANA’S balance of payments further deteriorated to a deficit of $3.64bn in December from a $3.4bn deficit the previous quarter, central bank data showed on Saturday.
The country is facing an economic crisis that saw consumer inflation rise to 54.1 percent last month. The cedi currency has depreciated around 50 percent annually, and interest payments on government debt have swelled to between 70 percent and 100 percent of GDP.
Recent balance of payments woes have been largely driven by a sharp reversal in capital flows, with Ghana’s capital account deficit having worsened to $2.18bn in December from $1.64bn in September.
At the same time last year, Ghana had a capital account surplus of more than $3.3bn.
Ghana secured a $3bn staff level bailout from the International Monetary Fund late last year, but must restructure its debts in order to obtain executive board approval.
The country has requested to restructure its bilateral debt under the Common Framework platform supported by the Group of 20 major economies, and is currently negotiating terms for a domestic debt exchange programme with local bond holders