LONDON: Ghana plans to launch an international bond around $1 billion or more next year, following its recent dollar bond offering, the country's deputy finance minister said on Tuesday.
"We are not going in (to international capital markets) again from now until December, we will go in definitely next year," Cassiel Ato Forson, one of Ghana's two deputy finance ministers, told Reuters on the sidelines of a Ghana investment forum.
"We will do $1 billion or maybe more." The gold, cocoa and oil-producing West African nation issued a $750 million 10-year dollar bond in July, along with an exchange of $250 million of new bonds for its debut dollar bond issued in 2007.
Ghanaian ministers had previously said Ghana may issue more international debt this year.
The government has not yet decided whether to issue a regular Eurobond or to launch debt linked to specific infrastructure projects, Forson said.
Ghana's recent bond had a launch yield of 8 percent and is currently trading around 8.3 percent.
"I think we can get a better yield," Forson said of next year's planned deal.
African and other frontier borrowers have been active in the international bond markets this year, taking advantage of a wide-reaching investor hunt for returns.
The threat of a reduction in US monetary stimulus stopped the flood of issuance temporarily, but borrowers such as Ghana and Nigeria have returned to the markets in recent weeks, even though yields have risen.
Ghana, which is targeting a budget deficit of 9 percent of GDP this year, plans to issue dollar debt more frequently, Forson said.
"We will be coming in regularly, maybe once a year." Ghana also recently launched its first seven-year domestic bond, and Forson said there were plans to extend the domestic yield curve beyond the current 10 years.
"We want to do 15 and 20 years," he said. The International Monetary Fund forecast on Tuesday GDP growth for Ghana of 7 percent this year, saying the country's current account deficit was a key risk.
But Forson said Ghana could meet the government's 7.9 percent growth target for the year, despite a fall in commodity prices.
"It's very achievable our economy is diversified, most of our growth is driven by the service sector."
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