Ghana’s Economic hardships: ” there appears to be No End” – John Mahama

Ex President for the leading opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama has noted that there seems to be a no way out for Ghana’s current economic hardships and as that reiterated his appeal for a national dialogue .

According to Mr. Mahama, national dialogue will bring the best brains in the country together to deliberate on the best way to move the economy forward as the country prepares for debt restructuring and negotiation of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

The former president’s comments came to the fore after the recent down grade of Ghana’s debt credibility from B-/B to CCC+/C negative outlook.

Posting on his Facebook wall, Mr Mahama noted that “The steep depreciation of the Ghana Cedi in recent days, clearly shows that the mid-year review of the 2022 budget failed to win back the confidence of the investor community and the Ghanaian public.

“Unfortunately,” he noted, “no credible remedial plans have been put forward by the government to salvage the economy.”

Meanwhile, the government says it is disappointed by Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade Ghana despite the bold policies implemented in 2022 to address macro fiscal challenges and debt sustainability which have been significantly exacerbated by the impact of these global external shocks, that is, Covid, Russia-Ukraine war, on the economy.

Government in its response in a statement release by the Finance Ministry said it will continue to be proactive in addressing the impact of external and domestic headwinds on the economy and on the lives and livelihoods of Ghanaians.

The government said it has implemented key revenue and expenditure measures, including the 30% cut in discretionary expenditures.

“The delays in the passage of key revenue measures introduced in the 2022 budget affected revenues performance in the first half of the year,” the statement explained.