Dr. John Kumah, the Deputy Minister of Finance, has reiterated that the current economic hardships the country find itself is massively due to external factors.
Dr. John Kumah speaking during an interview in Accra disclosed that, external factors have impacted the country’s debt position and have therefore compelled government of Ghana to roll out a debt restructuring program.
According to the deputy finance minister, Ghana’s debt situation has worsened due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war in the last two years.
“We got here through very difficult global circumstances. The economy was doing well before COVID-19 struck and when Covid came, it did not only hit Ghana, it hit the entire world and there were disruptions in supply chains.
“The introduction of lockdowns, and things generally became expensive, and even now that we are out of the pandemic, one of the symptoms of COVID-19 in every country is high inflation rates resulting in increase in the prices of goods and services. In Ghana, for example, we have seen how inflation levels have shot up from 12 percent to 40.4 percent in October, coupled with policy rate hitting 27% in the month of November.”
Dr. John Kumah, the Deputy Minister of Finance
Dr. Kumah also revealed that due to an unfortunate circumstance, the country was further hit in 2022 by the needless war in Russia and Ukraine which affected energy, leading to an increase in the prices of fuel at the pumps. “This resulted in a double increase of the transportation fares in the case of public transports. The ‘trotro’ driver had to pay more and translated that into increases in fares for passengers and for everyone,” he added.
Embrace Government’s Debt Exchange Program
Emphasizing on the proposed debt exchange program stated in the 2023 budget by the Minister of Finance, Dr. John Kumah noted that, the decision was arrived as part of the requirements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to access an economic support program to revive Ghana’s economy to its stable nature as previous.
“Any objective observer will tell you that, globally, we are heading toward a recession and that means further difficult situations for everyone. So we have to do something and that is why Ghana is making processes to get a program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and one of the conditions to meet the Fund’s program is debt sustainability.”
Dr. John Kumah
Dr. John therefore encouraged Ghanaians to work in hand with the government by welcoming the debt exchange program initiative as the program aims at the future development of the country.
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