A professor of Applied Economics at the Johns Hopkins University-USA, Steve Hanke, has once again painted a gloomy picture of Ghana’s economic indicators.
According to him, the country's economic woes continue to worsen by the day as he measured Ghana’s inflation rate at 65 percent/year, which is two times more than the announced rate of 31.7 percent rate by the Ghana Statistical Service.
By his estimations, Prof. Hanke ranked Ghana in 8th place among 18 other countries reeling from the impact of inflationary pressures.
In a Twitter post sighted by GhanaWeb, the US-based economist proposed for Ghana to urgently install a currency board which will address the persistent depreciation of the cedi against major trading currencies.
"#Ghana's economic woes continue to worsen. Ghana takes the 8th place in this week's inflation table. On August 11, I measured Ghana's #inflation at a stunning 65%/yr-more than 2x the official inflation rate of 32%/yr. GHA must install a #CurrencyBoard, NOW," he wrote on August 15.
It would not be the first time Professor Steve Hanke has given a damning verdict on Ghana’s economic indicators.
The 79-year-old economist has on numerous occasions described Ghana's inflation status as terrible.
He has also labelled the Ghana cedi as a ‘central bank junk currency’ - simply meaning its value is unreliable on both the international and domestic markets.
See Prof. Hanke's tweet below:
#Ghana's economic woes continue to worsen. Ghana takes the 8th place in this week's inflation table. On August 11, I measured Ghana's #inflation at a stunning 65%/yr-more than 2x the official inflation rate of 32%/yr. GHA must install a #CurrencyBoard, NOW. pic.twitter.com/hmIpUXd3zZ
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Prof. Steve Hanke