ACCRA, July 24 — Ghana’s Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson has said that the value of the country’s economy has, for the first time, exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars, making it one of the largest economies in Africa.
The West African exporter of cocoa, gold and crude oil saw its per capita income increase from 2,527 U.S. dollars in 2024 to 3,385 U.S. dollars at the end of 2025, the highest level ever recorded in the country’s history, Forson said on Thursday while presenting the mid-year review of the 2026 budget to parliament.
Forson said the government’s prudent fiscal management has also translated into a rapid decline in public debt, with the debt-to-GDP ratio falling from 61.8 percent at the end of 2024 to 44.7 percent at the end of 2025 before edging up slightly to 45 percent by the end of June 2026.
“Ghana has therefore already achieved its statutory debt target of 45 percent of GDP, years ahead of both the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-backed reform program timetable and the target date established under the Public Financial Management Act,” Forson said.
The achievement has reduced the share of government revenue used for debt servicing, with debt service as a proportion of domestic revenue declining sharply from 55.7 percent in 2022 to 28.8 percent in 2025, “freeing up billions of Ghanaian cedis for schools, hospitals, roads and other national priorities,” he added.
“For the first time since April 2014, Ghana’s external and overall risk of debt distress has improved from high to moderate,” the minister said.
“The joint World Bank-IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis has moved Ghana from unsustainable in May 2023 to sustainable in 2025 and now, for the first time ever, to sustainable with room to absorb shocks,” he added.
Ghana recorded real GDP growth of 6 percent in 2025, the fastest pace of economic expansion since 2019, while non-oil GDP grew by 7.6 percent, the highest rate in 14 years.(Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
