{"id":1170885,"date":"2022-08-08T20:01:03","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T20:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/08\/government-is-adopting-lazy-mans-approach-to-managing-economy-prof-lord-mensah\/"},"modified":"2022-08-08T20:01:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T20:01:03","slug":"government-is-adopting-lazy-mans-approach-to-managing-economy-prof-lord-mensah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/08\/08\/government-is-adopting-lazy-mans-approach-to-managing-economy-prof-lord-mensah\/","title":{"rendered":"Government is adopting lazy man\u2019s approach to managing economy \u2013 Prof Lord Mensah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-text\" style=\"line-height: 2; letter-spacing: -0.5px;font-size: 18px;\">\n<p>                        <!--p class=\"ky_saved_articles_link\"><span class=\"ky_saved_articles_hide\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" class=\"ky_saved_articles_img\" alt=\"Government is adopting lazy man\u2019s approach to managing economy \u2013 Prof Lord Mensah\" title=\"Government is adopting lazy man\u2019s approach to managing economy \u2013 Prof Lord Mensah\"><\/span> Bookmark<\/p-->\n<p>An economist at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) has said that the government has been adopting the lazy man\u2019s approach to managing the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n<p>His assertion is in connection with the revision of Ghana\u2019s rating from B-\/B to CCC+\/C, by Standards &#038; Poors (S&#038;P) Global Ratings, putting the country\u2019s creditworthiness into \u201cjunk status.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Professor Lord Mensah, government\u2019s ability to pay its debt \u201cgoing forward will be difficult and so the downgrade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1320113539&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true&#038;visual=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>S&#038;P also reviewed the country\u2019s economic outlook to negative, reflecting \u201cGhana\u2019s limited commercial financing options, and constrained external and fiscal buffers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In its latest report, S&#038;P highlighted Ghana\u2019s limited commercial financing options, and constrained external and fiscal buffers, attributing it to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-myjoyonline-com wp-block-embed-myjoyonline-com\"\/>\n<p>Government is however hoping to revive the economy with an IMF programme. <\/p>\n<p>But Prof Mensah says \u201cgoing to the Eurobond market to borrow has come to replace our export-oriented policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the current downgrade should be a wake up call for government to \u201cdo our assignment well or the next time we will go to CCC-.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor Lord Mensah proposed that the government takes aggressive economic measures in order to save the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor now there have to be aggressive measures which I know for political reasons government know Ghanaians will not be happy, but we have no choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He also called on the government to relook at expenditures that are discretionary and make at least a 50% cut.<\/p>\n<p>In a related development, a Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong has described the revision of Ghana\u2019s credit rating to CCC+\/C by S&#038;P Global Rating as putting the country\u2019s financial landscape into a more precarious situation.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the government must quickly fast-track the negotiation with the International Monetary Fund to secure an economic programme urgently, in order to bring credibility to the country\u2019s ability to borrow from the international capital markets.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-myjoyonline-com wp-block-embed-myjoyonline-com\"\/>\n<p>Speaking on the <strong>Super Morning Show <\/strong>Monday August 8th, 2022, Dr. Acheampong said S&#038;P\u2019s rating indicates that Ghana is one step away from defaulting in repaying of its loans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat this really has done is that it has made the financing landscape of the country even more challenging because the country\u2019s debt has been pretty much put into a speculative trajectory. And we are only one step below being classified as being in default in that regard\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the financing landscape has become extremely challenging or limiting for the government; the deficit and the debt is rising amidst all the follow-on-effect of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, it does mean that things are going to be challenging\u201d, he stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo is confident that the Ghanaian economy will bounce back strongly from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been exacerbated by the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the recent economic challenges that are confronting the nation in an interview on North Star Radio, on Monday, 8th August 2022, President Akufo-Addo indicated that when he took office in January 2017, he inherited an economy that was under an IMF Programme.<\/p>\n<p>According to the President, his government was able to exit successfully, in 2019, the IMF programme started by the erstwhile Mahama government, implemented flagship programmes like the Free SHS policy and 1-District-1-Factory initiatives, and grew the economy at an annual average growth rate of 7% from 2017 to 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust as we were able to go through this COVID-situation, I am confident (that we will go through these current difficulties). Let me repeat it, that this government, based on the policies that we have implemented, will find a way to bring our economy back to a better place,\u201d he assured.<\/p>\n<p>                <!-- Post Tags --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An economist at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) has said that the government has been adopting the lazy man\u2019s approach to managing the country\u2019s economy. His assertion is in connection with the revision of Ghana\u2019s rating from B-\/B to CCC+\/C, by Standards &#038; Poors (S&#038;P) Global Ratings, putting the country\u2019s creditworthiness into \u201cjunk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1170887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[16024,3177,1963,1090,7836,3750,2196,2807,2124,2280],"class_list":["post-1170885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-adopting","tag-approach","tag-economy","tag-government","tag-lazy","tag-lord","tag-managing","tag-mans","tag-mensah","tag-prof"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1170885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1170885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1170885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1170885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}