Economic rating not diplomatic maneuvering - Adongo to Akufo-Addo

During the 30th-anniversary celebration of the African Export-Import Bank in Accra, President Akufo-Addo expressed his dissatisfaction with the rating agencies describing their downgrades of Ghana's economy as reckless.

According to him such developments are detrimental to developing countries like Ghana and have contributed to the country’s current economic challenges.

Stressing the impacts of the ratings, president Akufo-Addo said being “the AU champion for African financial institutions and leader of a country that recently had to deal with one of the most difficult periods in his post-independent history, difficulties that were exacerbated by the reckless behaviour of rating agencies that engaged in pro-cyclical downgrades that shut Ghana out of the capital market and turned a liquidity crisis into a solvency crisis.”

However, in response to the president’s comments, Isaac Adongo, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, accused Akufo-Addo of dishonesty.

Adongo argued that these ratings are an integral part of the accepted global financial systems. He pointed out that when the rating agencies had assigned high ratings to Ghana in the past, the country had benefited by successfully accessing the capital markets and securing significant investments.

“You see the dishonesty, when the rating agencies were rating us high, and we were going to the capital markets and showing them the rating of Ghana and collecting the $3 billion, were we in bed with them to deceive the investors? What have the rating agencies said that is not true?”

“They should tell that man [Akufo-Addo] that rating is not a diplomatic manoeuvre, he should stop going around his peers and telling them stories. The rating agencies and the capital market predates his own life, and it is part of the global financial system that has come to be accepted. He has been a beneficiary of it.”

MA/FNOQ