Great Wall of Debt

Ghana: China debts, pension funds cloud prospects for IMF bailout

By David Whitehouse

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Posted on April 19, 2023 04:00

© Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they pose for photograph during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing September 3, 2018. Andy Wong/POOL Via REUTERS — Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they pose for photograph during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing September 3, 2018. Andy Wong/POOL Via REUTERS

Lack of transparency over Ghana’s debts to China, and the need for pension funds to take part in domestic debt restructuring mean that getting a bailout from the IMF will be harder than ever before, economists say.

Ghana suspended external debt payments in December 2022 and is seeking a $3bn bailout from the IMF, which it hopes to get by the end of June. The country’s public debt has marched upward over the long term, from around 20% of GDP in 2006 to 78.3% in June 2022.

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