Data released by the Bank of Ghana (BOG) recently showed that Ghana’s debt stock rose to GH¢ 97.2billion (or US$25.6billion) in December 2015, equivalent to 72.9% of the year’s total economic output, measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Out of this, total external debt amounted to GH¢57.8billion (43.4% of GDP) and domestic debt was GH¢39.4billion (25.2% of GDP). That means, in nominal terms, based on population projections by the Ghana Statistical Service; for every man, woman, and child living in Ghana owe about GH¢3,512.81 in government debt compared to GH¢872.99 as of 2011. As government run budget deficits, mainly leading to the rise in the debt level; servicing the debt comes with severe consequences.
Most research has shown
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A country burdened with an enormous debt means tax increases in the near-term to finance debt and its interest payments —consuming most of government revenues and crowding-out investment in priority areas such as education and health care. Such country is susceptible to external shocks such as global recession or financial crisis and most importantly, the country leaves an obligation that will pass along to the next generation.
Conventionally, a good measure of the sustainability and accumulation of a country’s debt is to consider the debt level to the overall economic output of the country measured by the GDP (known as the Debt-to-GDP ratio). The graph below shows the historical debt-to-GDP ratio of some selected African countries in the Sub-Saharan region over the past 10 years.
Source: http://data.imf.org/?sk=806ED027-520D-497F-9052-63EC199F5E63
Within the last 4 years, Ghana total debt stock rose to GHS97.2billion (72.9% of GDP) at the end of 2015, up from GH¢24billion (42.2% of GDP) as at the end of 2011. This represents a very momentous increase within 4 years. Comparing the current Debt-GDP-ratio to other selected countries in Africa (as shown in the graph), within the past 3 years, Ghana has had the highest Debt-to-GDP ratio.
A notable research published in the most prestigious economic journal, American Economic Review, using data spanning over 44 countries found that across both advanced countries and emerging
In the documentary Life and Debt, it is explained through the stories of local people, the economic and social crisis of Jamaica. With Jamaica receiving mandatory loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1977 because of lack of alternatives, Jamaica was promised meaningful development. Unfortunately, this only made the situation worse because of the extreme policies and foreign economic agendas that came with the loans, forcing Jamaica into even further debt. Therefore, it is my opinion that it is because of the policies and greed of the IMF and The World Bank that came along with the loans, that Jamaica is currently 4.5 billion dollars in debt.
In 2009 the debt was amounted to about $12 trillion , or 83.4 percent of the country’s GDP (“Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2011” table 7.1). Since 2003, the debt has been increasing by more than $500 billion annually. The increase in 2009 was $1.9 trillion. According to the Congressional Budgeting Office, this debt will keep increasing at least for the next decade (“The Budget and Economic Outlook : Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020” 21).
The National Debt started a long time ago when the U.S started the revolutionary war. It started in 1835 and went from there and our debt is rising till today. Our debt is predicted to be about 300,000,000 trillion dollars. The debt from September 2 was about 17 trillion it is rising very fast and when it gets too high the U.S will start losing products like Oil that we need for cars and other fuel working products. Our U.S. is one of the most highest in debt out of the whole world China is about 6 trillion, just an estimation, Africa is about 1 trillion, and Russia area is 8 trillion. $56,006 for every person living in the US. $145,950 for every household in the US. 103% of the U.S. gross domestic product. 540% of annual federal revenues. Public trading
Many poor countries carry sufficient amounts of debts due to loans from wealthier countries or from international bank loan companies. With the large build-up of loan, the country can go bankrupt. Ultimately, this leads to the entire country working to pay the debt without having any realization of their economy. Debts create significant obstacles for these developing countries, since they divert their funds away from improving different sectors, including healthcare or education. This contributes to lower life expectancy and more illiterates in the country. For instance, Liberia has a total debt of $3.7 billion US dollars; the problem is they can only allocate US $7
We have a long story of debt, but it seems no one has been able to make it better. If the debt is increasing over time, the government has a budget deficit. Charles C. Turner, et al, define deficit as spending that exceed revenue (482). In history, basic deficit or debt was usually from over spending from a war and economic issues like a recession or depression. Then the government had a budget deficit almost every year “between 1970 and 1997,” but tax cut and more spending on defense by President Reagan in 1981 added more growth to the deficit. Also, another cause is from reducing of productivity seem in the GDP and lower tax rate (tax cut) (483). Even when the government had some budget surplus, still, it could not cover the debt. In 2012, the debt grew “over $ 16 trillion,” (482-483) and has increased more in recent year plus 2.9 percent of budget deficit in 2016 (The 2016 Long Term Budget Outlook, 2). To manage the economic depression, sometime policymakers cut the taxes and increase spending again by putting more money into private sectors (Turner, 483); therefore, government goes further with the budget unbalancing. There are several reasons that lower tax rate will not reduce the budget deficit closer to a balance.
Historically, the US public debt as a share of GDP has increased during wars and recessions, and subsequently declined. The ratio of debt to GDP may decrease as a result of a government surplus or due to growth of GDP and inflation. For example, debt held by the public as a share of GDP peaked just after World War II (113% of GDP in 1945), but then fell over the following 35 years. In recent decades, however, aging demographics and rising healthcare costs have led to concern about the long-term sustainability of the federal government's fiscal
from poverty on the governments end because not only is their country in debt but the income is
One of the major causes of poverty throughout the world is National Debt. Also known as public debt, national debt is defined as “the total financial obligations of the central government of a nation usually in the form of interest-bearing government bonds” (National debt 2015). International debt is complex challenge in magnitude with poverty affecting the welfare of millions of people, in many countries all over the world. However at the same time international debt does not only affect those in the country but rather affects many international and private sources of financial institutions. National debt presents many moral challenge
With a high debt that the United States suffers from, the economy is unstable because it is not balanced in which the amount of money borrowed is being paid back to those countries. The U.S. faces a major disadvantage because the debt will cause the value of the country's currency to decrease. With the national debt being so high, citizens fail to realize the severity of the situation on the nation. Since the currency's value decreases due to the debt it causes a chain reaction: as the debt continues to increase, the currency value decreases, which causes people to make less money, and expedites the economy to reach a corruption. Citizens' taxes are raised to assist in paying off the debt because the taxes will provide the funding. An increase in taxation will influence more citizens to spend less, which will also help the economy and the budget to balance. However debt causes long-term effects to a country such as inflation because people will eventually have to pay more for goods and services because the prices will also begin to increase and the taxes are taken through the purchases (Adkins
This essay will provide a brief overview of theoretical views of the national debt, costs incurred as a result of a high national debt, and recommendations to eliminate the ever-expanding budget
A Harvard Business School study revealed that the gross domestic product grew at a rate of about 2% in since 2000. One of the issues causing the slow growth is the growth of the government debt which continues to increase each year. The current national debt stands at over US $ 19 trillion as of July 29, 2016. The debt is as a result of the increase in the government spending, decreases of taxes collected and other receipts. The debt is slowing the growth of the economy as the growth in debt is proportional to the Gross Domestic Product. Over time the debt holders will demand a higher interest rate because they fear a risk of not being paid. According to the www.balance.com, the debt may cause the Social Security Trust Fund will not have enough cash to cover retirement benefits; this causes
If we look at the web site of the treasure department of the U.S., we can easily find a document with all information about the national debt for 2014 [1]. This document informs us about the Total Debt Held by the Public (page 28) as of September 30, 2014 which is equal to $12,784,971. How much is it? To answer this question, it is wise to remember that everything is relative in our world, that is why the sum of the debt is not as important as the Debt-to-GDP ratio.
Debts and Deficits have become a big problem now in the United states and has caused many people to be worried about their futures. As the total number of debt rises in the United States people and economist start to worry more and more. People are worried that their kids and their grandkids won’t be able to grow up in the same luxury as they did. Many economists even believe that the standard of living might decline drastically if a solution isn’t found soon. 1/3 of people in the United States people believe national debt is the biggest problem in the united states. A budget deficit can be described as basically whenever the governments spending increases their tax revenues. In a poll conducted budget deficit is the the number one thing that worries people the most. Since recently we have had some large budget deficits. The current United
The growth of government debt will have disastrous consequences for an economy in the long run. A prolonged crisis could hurt economic growth significantly. And a default on the debt would almost certainly create big disruptions in the financial markets. It is hypothesized that the government have reached its debt ceiling and that will put the government into default and precipitate an acute fiscal crisis. It is predicted that the government 's ability to finance its operations, like providing for the national defense or funding entitlements such as Medicare or Social Security could potentially be
In the last year the United States has painfully reached the net public debt to GDP ratio of 100 percent. This would be the federal government’s accumulated debt that is equal or has actually surpassed the United States Gross Domestic Product in 2010. After the debt ceiling limit was passed, the Treasury borrowed $238 billion in 2010. This brought public debt to $14.58 trillion dollars, slightly higher than the United States GDP in 2010, which was $14.54