S&P Global Ratings has raised Ghana’s long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings from ‘CCC+/C’ to ‘B-/B’ due to a ‘stable’ outlook.
The global rating agency also revised the transfer and convertibility assessment on the country from ‘CCC+’ to ‘B-‘.
According to a statement issued on Friday, November 7, the upgrade reflects Ghana’s gradually strengthening balance of payments and fiscal positions, which have been supported by resilient growth of the domestic economy as well as favorable terms of trade, including prices for gold and cocoa.
Those two items account for over 60% of Ghana’s exports.
“We forecast that Ghana’s gross international reserves will strengthen to $10.4 billion (9% of GDP) at the end of 2025 from $6.8 billion a year earlier,” S&P noted.
“We also note that Ghana’s new government, which came to power in December 2024, is enacting policies to safeguard against fiscal slippages, which were frequent.
“This includes a mandated 1.5% of GDP primary surplus on an annual basis, for debt to be brought to 45% of GDP by 2034, as well as a proactive framework for correcting future fiscal deviations.”
S&P observed that Ghana’s inflation was forecast to remain under 10% from over 20% at the start of 2025 while the Cedi has appreciated by about 30% compared with the U.S. dollar so far this year.
The country is also said to have made substantial progress in restructuring its government debt following the default in December 2022.
“In particular, Ghana successfully completed deals for exchanging its local currency government debt in 2023 as well as $13.1 billion worth of Eurobonds in October 2024.
“We understand that the authorities are currently in talks to finalize the restructuring of the remaining $5 billion worth of official and commercial debt, which constitutes about 7% of total public debt, subject to restructuring negotiations with the rest thus already settled.”
Despite the positive outlook, S&P insist that its rating of Ghana is constrained by weak institutional arrangements, elevated government debt levels and debt service costs.
“The economy is susceptible to erratic weather and external shocks, particularly given its reliance on agriculture (20% of GDP) and gold exports (over 60% of goods exports in first half 2025).
“These could face pressure should prices fall more significantly than we currently anticipate.
“We also note that fiscal reforms are still in their early stages and are thus untested through election cycles, with risks of fiscal slippages through 2028.”
It expects the 2026 budget statement, to be presented in Parliament on Thursday, “to broadly maintain the ongoing fiscal improvements”.