The Country Director for World Bank, Pierre Laporte, has said that the country started facing economic challenges before COVID-19.
In its January 2022 Monetary Policy Report, the Bank of Ghana stated that the stock of public debt was equivalent to 78.4 percent of GDP at the end of 2021, up from 76.1 percent at the end of 2020.
As of November 2021, the country’s total public debt stock was over $344.5 billion, a scenario that analysts have termed as worrying.
The Finance Ministry has stated that responsibilities such as public sector worker remuneration may become an issue if nothing is done to increase revenue-generating modalities, such as the passage of the E-levy.
The Minority has also accused the administration of mismanaging and misapplying funds, causing the economy to stifle and the budgetary space to decrease.
The COVID-19 has been blamed by the government on multiple occasions as a major contributor to the economy’s unsustainable debt levels.
The Minority claims that the government is using the pandemic to explain its inefficiencies, an allegation that the administration refutes.
However, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim insists that the signs of an economic downturn were obvious even before the global pandemic struck.
He was presenting at a One Ghana Movement-sponsored public lecture.
Ghana’s economy is also expected to face worse times, according to the World Bank.
This comes at a time when the currency rate continues to grow in the face of rising inflation and rising living costs, as well as rising petroleum product prices.
“Yes, COVID has not helped but even before Covid, there were signs that the situation was getting a little more challenging,” Mr Laporte explained.
According to him, “He [Finance Minister] acknowledges the severity of the situation.”
“The situation is very difficult right now. Ghana faces a very tough road ahead to restore macro-sustainability,” he said on Tuesday.
Story by Elizabeth Tamakloe
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