Prof. Steve Hanke and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, has warned that Ghana is on the way to an economic death spiral.
The academic, who has been critical of Ghana’s economy in recent months, cited inflation figures for his latest assessment of the economy.
He insists that the Ghana Statistical Service has churned out inflation figures far below the real interest rate as “garbage”.
“Ghana’s economic death spiral just keeps spinning. Today I measure inflation in Ghana at a staggering 84.95% per year, about 1.58 times the fake official rate from Ghana Statistical Services. The GSS produces GARBAGE,” Hanke tweeted on March 11.
Government seeks rescue package for IMF
Government run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2022 at a time when the economy was in a downward spiral.
The government just recently secured a Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP), which experts say is a key condition for the lender to get board approval for a $3 billion bailout.
The program was designed to ensure the rationalization of Ghana’s unsustainable debt. The government announced a participation rate of 85%.
Ghana hopes to receive the first tranche of the bailout package by March this year, among other things to curb inflation and stem the galloping devaluation of the cedi.
Discussions are ongoing with Ghana’s external creditors to restructure the loans and receive IMF Board approval in March 2023.
In #Ghana the #Cedi is junk. By my measurement, the Cedi has depreciated ~49.77% against the USD since Jan 1, 2022. Thanks Pres. Akufo-Addo’s incompetence and economic mismanagement, the cedi has been added to my rogue gallery of JUNK currencies. pic.twitter.com/0ifxnyfUpF
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) March 11, 2023
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