Credit ratings have improved under NPP government – Assibey-Yeboah

Mark Assibey-Yeboah, Member of Parliament (MP) for the New Juaben South has indicated that due to the New Patriot Party’s (NPP) economic and social interventions, credit ratings from global firms have improved.

According to him, the last time the nation saw a positive adjustment with regards to credit ratings came under former President John Agyekum Kufour.

Referring to the 2020 Budget and Economic Policy, the MP said; “Ghana’s credit story has improved over the past 10 years compared to our [NPP] performance a decade ago”

“Under the eight years of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) watch, nothing has happened to our credit ratings and now every single global rating firm such as Fitch, Standard & Poors and Moody’s have given us an improved outlook based on our performance over the last three years under President Akufo-Addo,” he added.

Mark Assibey Yeboah made this known to Members of Parliament on Monday, November 18, at the Parliamentary Debate on the 2020 Budget and Economic Policy in Accra.

Credit ratings are usually used by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other investors to gauge the credit worthiness of a nation having a big impact on the country's borrowing costs.

Ghana’s credit ratings from international firms

Standards and Poor’s (S&P)

Rating agency, Standards and Poor's (S&P) Global earlier in March 15 of this year maintained its 'B/B' long- and short-term foreign and local sovereign credit ratings on Ghana, following pressure on public finances, with interest payments representing over 30 percent of government revenues.

S&P Global also assigned a stable outlook due to what it described as ‘fairly strong growth prospects.

Fitch

Ratings agency, Fitch also maintained Ghana’s ‘B’ rating with a stable outlook and placed Ghana's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'B' which is two levels below investment grade.

According to the agency, the rating is because Ghana has strong medium-term growth potential and strong governance indicators relative to peers; balance against worsening external liquidity, a weak banking sector, and high debt levels.

Fitch also forecasted that “government debt will fall in 2019, to 58 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but high debt servicing costs and currency depreciation will keep debt above 50 percent of GDP in the medium term”.

Moody’s

Moody's credit rating however for Ghana, was last set at B3 with a stable outlook.