Sustainability of External Debt: The Case of ECOWAS Countries

External debt sustainability is a pressing issue in developing countries, particularly for Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). The main purpose of this study is to investigate the sustainability of external debt in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). To test external debt sustainability, unit root test and Johansen & Juselius (1990) co-integration and panel unit root and panel cointegration tests are employed. The unit root tests show that the total external debt to export ratio is not stationary in all countries verifying the unsustainability of external debts. Further, co-integration tests results based on time series and panel data indicate that total external debt stock and export are not co-integrated suggesting that external debt is not sustainable in all countries. Based on our results some policy recommendations are proposed.