Ghana's debt restructuring nears the finish line: 16 of 25 bilateral agreements finalised, the GSDR says
Ghana has finalised 16 of its 25 bilateral agreements with official creditors, according to the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable's seventh progress report, issued at the IMF–World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok — leaving the restructuring of the debts it suspended in December 2022 close to completion. Talks continue with the remaining non-bonded commercial creditors, who now account for less than 5% of the debt covered by the exercise. The agreements implement, country by country, the terms Ghana agreed with its Official Creditor Committee under the G20 Common Framework.
Key points
- 16 of Ghana's 25 bilateral agreements with official creditors are finalised, on the GSDR's seventh progress report.
- The remaining non-bonded commercial creditors account for less than 5% of the debt in the restructuring — talks with them continue.
- The bilateral agreements implement the Official Creditor Committee terms agreed under the G20 Common Framework.
- Ghana's case is among the 2021–22 restructurings the report finds largely completed; Ethiopia's bond exchange is the one still pending.
What happened
Ghana's restructuring began with the December 2022 payment suspension, at the depth of its debt crisis, and proceeded in layers: a domestic debt exchange, a Eurobond exchange completed in 2024, and the January 2025 memorandum with official creditors — which then had to be turned into a separate signed agreement with each of the 25 bilateral creditors. The 16-of-25 count measures that final, slowest layer.
The GSDR — co-chaired by the IMF, the World Bank and the G20 presidency — exists to speed up exactly this process, and its Bangkok report treats Ghana, Zambia and the other early-2020s cases as nearly done, with a new generation of cases, led by Senegal, behind them.
Claim by claim
Why this label: The figure is the report's, as published by Joy Business and as carried in BirrMetrics' account of the same report's country table (Ghana 16 of 25, alongside Ethiopia 11 of 14, Zambia 10 of 16 and Sri Lanka 9 of 17); the IMF's release confirms the report and its Bangkok issue.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The GSDR report as reported by Joy Business; the same 'less than 5 per cent' residual is stated in the roundtable's earlier progress reporting on Ghana.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The report's wider findings, as reported by Joy Business.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
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Why this label: The background as set out in Joy Business's report of the GSDR assessment.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- The 16-of-25 figure and the under-5% residual, from the GSDR's seventh progress report of 14 October.
- That 22 new bilateral agreements were signed across the reviewed cases since April, and Ethiopia's bond exchange is the outstanding one among them.
What we don't know yet
- Which nine bilateral agreements remain unsigned, and when they will be concluded — the report does not name them in the reporting read.
- The terms on which the remaining commercial creditors will settle.
Why it matters
Each signed bilateral agreement converts a promise of debt relief into a binding one, and the count is the measure of how close Ghana is to closing a restructuring that has shaped its budgets, its borrowing costs and its IMF programme for four years. At 16 of 25, with under 5% of the debt left in dispute, the end of the process is a matter of finishing, not of renegotiating.
Background
Show the background timeline (4)
Ghana suspends payments on selected external debts and seeks IMF support.
Ghana's Official Creditor Committee is established under the G20 Common Framework.
Ghana signs a memorandum of understanding with its official creditors, to be implemented through bilateral agreements.
The GSDR's seventh progress report, issued in Bangkok, counts 16 of the 25 bilateral agreements finalised.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
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Published. Basis: the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable's seventh progress report, issued on 14 October.