Credit Ratings: You can’t accept the praises and refuse the criticism – Economist tells Akufo-Addo
Dr. Patrick Essuming, an economist at the University of Ghana Business School (UBGS), has expressed his disagreement with the president’s stance on credit rating agencies downgrading Ghana’s economy.
The reduction in status had been dubbed “reckless” by President Akufo-Addo.
According to him, the downgrades made the problems in Ghana and other African nations worse.
For instance, Fitch Ratings downgraded Ghana’s Long-Term Local-Currency (LTLC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to “RD” from “CCC” in April of this year.
“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 behavior of rating agencies that engaged in pro-cyclical downgrades that shut Ghana out of the capital market and turned a liquidity crisis into a solven crisis,” said President Akufo-Addo on Sunday, June 18.
He also mentioned the difficulties associated with relying on borrowing for growth in African nations.
It is pricey and unsafe, he claimed.
To that purpose, he is urging the development of African financial institutions and the expansion of their ownership in order to offer low-cost financial assistance to African nations. Akufo-Addo
On Monday, June 19, Dr. Essuming responded to this on News 360 on TV3, saying, “The challenge with the President’s position is that at a time when the same rating agencies have upgraded you and you have used that as a sign that you are managing the economy well, you can’t turn around when the same criteria or the same institutions are downgrading you and start lambasting them.
“I believe that this is the issue because you can’t accept the compliments while rejecting the criticism.”
Akufo-Addo
Table of Contents
About Author
