Investors lose faith in Ghana’s economy - CEPA

The Center for Policy Analysis (CEPA) says investors particularly foreigners have lost interest in the Ghanaian economy because of government failure to implement pragmatic policies to save the economy from collapsing.

“Ghana has lost credibility in the investment community. We [Ghana] are giving too many excuses and blaming our problems on the negative impact of external force. Investors do not trust the way we are managing the economy,” Executive Director of CEPA, Dr Joe Abbey said.

The latest debt sustainability analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicates that Ghana has moved from a moderate risk of enduring debt distress to high risk of enduring debt distress.

This shows that investors have lost the appetite to lend to Ghana.

CEPA warned government to desist from borrowing or risk putting the economy on it toes.

Citing the Greece example where its economy has been struggling since incurring huge debts a couple of years ago, the economic think-tank said the Ghanaian economy is nearing Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) if government does not end the excessive borrowing.

“We better reduce our own appetite for borrowing and rather develop the domestic bond market, the Executive Director, Dr. Joe Abbey disclosed at the end of a three-day Greenhill Roundtable for Effective Economic Management and Governance on the theme: From Home-Grown through Senchi to IMF ‘bailout’.

Ghana’s total debt at the end of March 2015 stood at GH¢88.2 billion, representing 65.3 percent of GDP. Of the total public debt, domestic debt constituted 41.4 per cent and external debt 58.6 per cent. A nation is deemed HIPC when its debt to GDP ratio is 70 percent or more.

The astute economist said there are large imbalances in the Ghanaian economy adding “we like externalizing our problems we face than accepting responsibilities….what is the point of buying a manager who always externalizes problems.”

He said, “if you have these twin deficits of imbalances on the merchandise trade account and fiscal side then you are prone to be highly indebted and still poor.”

According to him, the rate of increase in the nation’s debt in the last two years is the fastest in recent decades.

Dr Abbey emphasized that the debt picture in the last two years have been particularly bad, adding despite borrowing from foreigners the Cedi keeps depreciating.

Dr. Abbey blamed part of the woes of the currency depreciation on election years, saying during these periods governments spend beyond their means which in the long run hit the economy hard leading to high inflation and interest rate.

The Cedi has depreciated by more than 20 percent so far this year, trading at about GH¢4.46 to a dollar.

The former Government Statistician said the fortunes of the Cedi particularly in the last two years have been worse than previous years

He called for a better maintenance culture such as roads and cars, adding “ we can’t continue to buy new things such as vehicles.

On monetary policy, he said managers of the policy must be up to task or face dismissal.

According to him, the nation cannot continue to hire managers who are failures

Some of the issues discussed at the meeting were declining growth trends in the non-oil sector particularly manufacturing and the energy problem.