Financial Economist, Professor Godfred Bokpin, has urged President Akufo-Addo and his government to stop lamenting and get to work to improve the country’s economic indicators in order to achieve macroeconomic stability.
This comes after the President criticized the international rating agencies for unfairly and recklessly downgrading sovereign nations, particularly Ghana, during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian/Ukraine war.
Speaking to Joy Business, Professor Bokpin advised President Akufo-Addo to stop lamenting and improve the economy.
“We cannot say the rating agencies put us out of the capital but the right way to put it is, our economy had deteriorated and when those shocks came it exposed us; and the rating agencies had no choice but to downgrade the country.”
“This same rating agencies had given us good ratings in the past”, he added.
President Akufo-Addo at the 30th anniversary of the Afreximbank, contends that challenges in the country’s economy were compounded by the downgrades making it one of the most difficult times in the history of the country post-independence
But Professor Bokpin disagrees with these assertions by the President, explaining that these rating agencies did not kick out the country from the capital market, but rather Ghana’s economic fundamentals had deteriorated and fiscal vulnerabilities exposed the country prior to the global shocks.
“Even our kind of haircut was not voluntary as they earlier communicated. So we lost it but we were not kicked out. I feel for the president but I do not agree with him because the methodology they use is clear for us all to see”.
Professor Bokpin therefore urged the government to get to work and improve its indicators for macroeconomic stability.
“We are at the point where we have to take responsibility. We know he is doing his possible best but we also have to be realistic in terms of where we could have done better. Blaming rating agencies will not undo the past”, he concluded.
