Ghana’s recent default on its external debt service commitments amplifies the signal that external debt in sub-Saharan Africa has reached unsustainable levels. The stock of outstanding external debt of sub-Saharan countries, which stood at $322 billion in 2010, had risen to $790 billion by 2021 (Chart 1).
This debt is not just owed to official bilateral or multilateral creditors. Over the decade starting 2020, private creditors (with no…