President John Dramani Mahama
The lenses of Nana Akufo-Addo, flag bearer of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), see economic crisis where none exists, President John Mahama.
In an address at the University of Energy and Natural Resources on day-four of his campaign tour, Mr Mahama wondered why Mr Akufo-Addo will keep harping on the "propaganda" that Ghana's economy is in "crisis" when all evidence, in his view, point to the contrary.
"… So when somebody sits and says: 'The economy is in crisis', you fail to understand where he is seeing the crisis. He probably has some lens that sees crisis where crisis does not exist and the international community is recognising it," he said.
According to Mr Mahama, the recent upgrading of Ghana's economy by Moody's and the over-subscription of the last Eurobond, defeat the claims by the NPP that Ghana's economy is in crisis.
"The last Eurobond that we floated – and incidentally that Eurobond was floated to settle the outstanding Eurobond that was taken in 2007, and, so, this Eurobond was to settle the $400million left of that Eurobond. It was successful, it was oversubscribed. We went in looking for $750million; the international credit community offered us $4billion. Why would you give a country in crisis $4billion?
And so it gives a lie to the propaganda people try to put out that this country is in crisis.
"Recently, Moody's which is one of the recognised international credit agencies upgraded Ghana. At the time Moody's was downgrading us in 2012, 2013, the same people said: 'Oh you see, Ghana has been downgraded, it means the economy is bad, your credit rating is poor.
"And we have fought to try and restore that confidence in Ghana's economy. So, the same Moody's that was downgrading us, you recongised it and you were happy about it. I don't know how you can be happy about your country being downgraded? I mean don't you have a sense of patriotism? But they were happy when we were downgraded. Now the same Moody's upgrades us and an opposition leader says Moody's doesn't know what they are talking about. I mean how can you eat your cake and have it? You can't have double standards in measurements.
"These are the recognised credit rating agencies: Moody's, Fitch [and] Standard & Poor's. They are the ones who rate America, China and everybody, and, so, if they say Ghana's economy has been upgraded in terms of confidence from negative to stable, then it is a good thing and so we will continue to manage the economy in a prudent manner in order that we are able to make Ghana a place of prosperity".
