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As it faces a severe economic crisis (inflation, fluctuating local currency and colossal debt), Ghana has seen its rating downgraded to “ restricted defect after failing to repay more than $40 million in Eurobond loans.
Ghana announced the temporary suspension of most of its external debt last December as part of its restructuring. It is now concrete: Accra has not reimbursed part of its external debts.
« Ghana can’t really get out of this, it gets into a really vicious cycle of constantly borrowing to pay off past debts and that, at some point, catches up to you, explains Ange Ponou, an economist specializing in financial issues in West Africa. This is why Ghana today is negotiating strongly with the IMF: the situation in which its public finances find themselves can only be resolved by adopting a program that the authorities will have to apply to the letter. »
Ghana has signed a preliminary agreement with the IMF for a three billion dollar plan. In return, the country had to undertake numerous reforms and make choices. ” Imagine that we take this money to give it to the creditors and that behind it, Ghana is unable, for example, to pay its civil servants. It would do a lot more damage “, notes Ange Ponou.
With this missed deadline, Ghana pushes the creditors a little more to sit around the table. ” It’s a state, you don’t put a state in prison. Ghana’s international creditors are forced to renegotiate the timing or maturity of the debt. There, we are on a clear observation that Ghana will not be able to reimburse. And as it is a country, a country does not disappear, it is not a company which goes bankrupt indefinitely. We will therefore have to find other agreements to allow the country to repay “, concludes the specialist.
Among the levers of creditors: the rescheduling of payments and compensation with higher interest rates. In December, the authorities had indicated to them that they wanted a debt restructuring exercise “ fair, transparent and complete ».