Banking Industry Ghana’s Fiscal Position and Debt Dynamics Introduction Macroeconomic Insights Global Political Landscape Ghana’s Fiscal Position Technology & Cybersecurity G hana’s fiscal position over the period covered by the dataset reveals a long history of structural deficits punctuated by episodic consolidation. Between 2014 and 2025, the overall fiscal balance averaged a deficit of 6.56 percent of GDP, indicating that fiscal policy has generally been expansionary even during periods of economic stability. The deficit widened sharply during the pandemic period, reaching a trough of negative 11.7 percent of GDP in 2020, which represents the weakest fiscal outcome in the dataset.
This deterioration reflected emergency spending pressures, revenue shortfalls, and elevated financing costs. surplus of 0.2 percent in 2023, slipping back into a deficit of negative 1.2 percent in 2024, and strengthening again to a surplus of 0.7 percent in 2025. Meanwhile, the current account, after years of deficits peaking at −7.5% in 2015, has turned into surpluses of 1.8% in 2023–2024 and an estimated 4.4% in 2025, signaling improving external resilience from rising exports, remittances, and foreign inflows.
This combination of fiscal consolidation, better debt management, and growing foreign reserves has underpinned the Cedi’s partial recovery in 2025 and, if sustained, positions Ghana for greater macroeconomic stability, stronger currency performance, and improved investor confidence in 2026 and beyond. In recent years, Ghana has grappled with the twin deficit problem, with persistent fiscal deficits and current account shortfalls driving volatility and depreciation of the Cedi up to 2024.
The primary balance, which swung from surpluses in 2014–2019 to a sharp deficit of −5.3% of GDP in 2020, has gradually improved, with a projected surplus of 0.7% in 2025, reflecting stronger fiscal discipline. Fiscal consolidation began gradually after 2020 but gained momentum during the IMF-supported adjustment period. The deficit narrowed to negative 9.2 percent in 2021 and negative 8.3 percent in 2022, before improving significantly to negative 3.3 percent in 2023. Although the deficit widened again to negative 5.2 percent in 2024, it strengthened materially to negative 2.23 percent in 2025, which is the strongest fiscal outcome recorded in the series.
This improvement reflects tighter expenditure control, enhanced revenue mobilisation, and reduced interest costs following debt restructuring. Figure 15: Ghana’s Primary Balance Against The Current Account Balance The primary balance improved steadily thereafter, returning to a Source: Bank of Ghana Online Database Portal Ghana Association of Banks 2026 Industry Outlook 14