Ghana and South Africa’s fiscal discipline paying off

Ghana's reforms under its IMF program, which finished this week, have given the government space to loosen policy to support growth. Fiscal discipline is also paying off in South Africa, where the budget deficit held steady again in June, despite spending pressures from the energy shock. We expect public debt-to-GDP ratios in both countries to fall over our forecast horizon.

We’ll be discussing our latest EM Financial Risk Indicators in an online briefing at 10:00 ET / 15:00 BST on Wednesday 5th August. Register here. Within Africa, sovereign debt risk has generally ticked up, but South Africa’s has stabilised.