According to him, the free fall of the cedi is more depictive of the inability of the mid-year budget review to achieve its intended purpose.
This, he said, has not restored investor confidence in the economy, leading to the economy’s downgrade to CCC.
“There appears to be no end to the problems with the Ghanaian economy, with the recent downgrade to CCC+/C Junk status,” John Dramani Mahama wrote in a Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb on August 9, 2022.
He added 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.”
On August 5, 2022, Standard and Poor’s ("S&P") Global Ratings downgraded Ghana’s foreign and local currency credit ratings from 'B-/B' to 'CCC+/C' with a negative outlook.
According to S&P, the downgrade is due to intensifying financing and external pressures on the economy.
The Finance Ministry in response stated that “the Government is disappointed by S&P’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 on the economy.”
But the former president stated that the government is clueless on how to derive solutions to put an end to the country’s challenges, therefore some of the best brains in the country should be consulted to deliberate on possible solutions.
“Unfortunately, no credible remedial plans have been put forward by the government to salvage the economy,” he said.
“A national dialogue on the economy, bringing some of our best brains together will serve us well, even as we prepare for debt restructuring and negotiation of an IMF programme,” the former president added.
View his Timepath below:
SSD/ESA
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John Dramani Mahama