By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Jorgelina do Rosario
ACCRA/LONDON (Reuters) – Ghana has sent a letter to its official creditors, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter say. A debt restructuring proposal comes as the West African nation struggles to emerge from its worst economic crisis in a generation.
The “working proposal” is a crucial first step for cocoa, gold and oil producers to then approach the official committee of creditors, one of the sources said. binding.
It marks the start of a more detailed negotiating process, with a possible exchange of proposals.
Ghana intends to complete domestic debt restructuring ahead of negotiations with official, bilateral creditors and international bondholders, a government official said.
The sources did not confirm the details of the proposal or the date it was sent. A spokesman for Ghana’s finance ministry had no immediate comment.
Ghana plans to cut interest on 10 $500 million external debt over next three years to successfully implement $3 billion loan IMF (IMF) transactions.
Its debt to countries including China and members of the Paris Club of creditor countries is $5.4 billion of 10 billion foreign debt maturities Restructuring, according to the government presentation to investors, by the end of a 2020. The total stock of external debt is about 10 billion US dollars.
Ghana completed a 30% domestic debt swap to holders of local bonds in February and is also seeking relief from most of its remaining domestic debt, including Deals with pension funds, trade unions and independent power producers.
It is being established under the common framework of G10 at 2020 Program to restructure its debt to bring China and other newer creditors into joint sovereign debt restructuring negotiations to restructure its external debt.
