Ghana wants to issue bigger $1.5 bln

Pulse Staff 10:50 - 21 July 2015

United States one dollar bills are put in packaging bands during production at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington November 14, 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

The minister did not go into the reasons for the increase, but it had been approved by the International Monetary Fund, a senior government official told Reuters, requesting not to be named.

Ghana wants to issue a Eurobond of up to $1.5 billion - higher than an originally planned $1 billion - by September for debt financing and budget support, deputy finance minister Cassiel Ato Forson said on Tuesday.

Ghana's finance minister Seth Terkper was presenting a reviewed 2015 budget including the larger Eurobond to parliament on Tuesday.

The government of the cocoa, gold and oil-producing West African nation had planned to issue the $1 billion Eurobond by the end of June, but has been pushed back to September.