An Economist and Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana, Professor Eric Osei Assibey, has said that the information and policy measures rolled out by the government to address the current economic challenges facing the country as a result of the COVIID-19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crises have started yielding some results.
The Senior Economist and Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana, said in economic management, information plays a critical role in the sense that people want credible information to plan, forecast, internalize it in their costing and pricing decisions as well as use it in their speculative activities. This is why he urged the government to constantly provide credible information to help market participants respond in ways that will benefit investment in the country.
“So, in that sense, I think that such information is critical and if you just look at the trend over last couple of days when government started putting out information and rolling out raft of measures to control inflation and to stem the exchange rate, you can clearly see the positive result. The rate at which the Cedi is depreciation has slowed quite considerably. You look at even Ghana’s sovereign spread, it has narrowed considerably over the last couple of days, largely because of some of these information and measures that government has put out”.
Professor Eric Osei Assibey
Dr. Bawumia Spoke To Facts That Are Verifiable
Speaking on PM Express Business Edition on Thursday night, Prof Eric Osei-Assibey said the speech delivered by the Vice President, H.E. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, at the TESCON forum on Thursday April 7, 2022 on the state of Ghana’s economy was factual, credible and verifiable. He said this was commendable becasue the market wants such credible information to aid its decision making.
“If the market finds out that this information that is being churned out is false, is not credible, you as a government actually cause reputational damage to yourself; you fall definitely into a trap that will be difficult for you to get out – you get into reputational damage. I mean, next time when you speak, nobody takes you serious. So, I think information has to be credible, and what I have seen thus far, given this lecture that Dr. Bawumia gave, I mean, he spoke to facts and the facts are all verifiable”.
Professor Eric Osei Assibey
Prof Eric Osei-Assibey said some of the figures cited by the Chairman of Ghana’s Economic Management team were drawn from Bank of Ghana’s recent MPC announcement as well as data from Fitch and Moody’s reports which “are all verifiable facts that we can all go and check”.
“And I’ve just been doing my crosschecking and I’ve realized that most of the things that were put out were credible, they were factual, you can actually go and check it to see that indeed whether inflation has not been rising. And you could clearly see that interest rate was trending downwards, so it is difficult to debate, to say anything other than what has been presented. Of course, the reason behind the numbers can be debatable, it’s economics, and everyone will obviously have a different opinion and just as we often say that economic opinions are like noses, everyone has his/hers. But then, facts are facts, there’s no way you can deny facts so long as it is written in black and white”.
Professor Eric Osei Assibey
Based on that, the Economist underscored that it is necessary and critical that from time to time, the government comes out to tell Ghanaians the true state of the economy, “speaking to facts and providing explanation, underlining reasons why we are where we are”. He said these are some of the things Ghanaians want to see and through this, government will also be able to build confidence and promote credibility and transparency in the macroeconomic management.
Commenting on the setting of the Vice President’s presentation, Prof Eric Osei-Assibey said “I don’t think we should worry so much about where that information is delivered. For me, my key issue will be whether that information is credible or not”. This was in response to questions about whether the speech will make so much impact as it could possibly be mistaken as a political campaign message.
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