[ 2015-05-02 ]

Checking Ghana’s rising debt way to stabilizing economy - Razia Khan
Standard Chartered Africa research boss Razia Khan
has maintained that checking Ghana rising debt,
could be the way to stabilizing the economy.

Managers of the economy, over the past months have
instituted several programmes and policies to halt
the country’s economic decline.

These measures, like the homegrown policies, and
the IMF programme have so far failed to do the
trick in the immediate to short term.

Speaking to JOYBUSINESS in an interview, after
the StanChart Africa Summit held in Accra, Razah
Khan said the public debt which is inching close
to 70 percent of GDP is Ghana’s biggest problem
now, adding that things could improve greatly if
much attention it given to the country’s debt
issues.

The country’s public debt hit 76 billion as at
December last year according to the Bank of
Ghana.

Some have argued that the amount could cross the
70 percent mark, as parliament has approved new
loans since the beginning of this year.

The International Monetary Fund has put Ghana on a
list of countries that could soon be classified as
high debt distress countries.

Razia Khan says it might take a while before,
investors react by bringing in capital after Ghana
secured a programme with the IMF.

Some investor funds have been frozen because of
uncertainty about the management of the economy,
and delays in securing a programme.

It was expected these funds will come in quickly
after the board of the IMF approved Ghana’s
programme.

But Razia Khan believes investors currently a
difficulty seeing their way clear because there's
a lot going on elsewhere in the world economy.

“Yes investors are enthused about Ghana securing
an IMF programme, but there is lot of things going
on around the world, like African countries
coming under pressure, the dollar in general this
year has been strengthening and there are
expectations that the US Federal Reserves’
decision to hike interest rates could even
affect the decision of these investors,” She
added.

She noted that it would be misplaced to expect
that investors would react immediately, following
the signing of the IMF programme with Ghana.

Source - Joy News

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