Bloomberg’s Warning Of Economic Collapse: Ato Forson Fingers Akufo Addo’s Mismanagement

Former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Casiel Ato Forson, has surmised the listing of Ghana among ten countries likely to see their economies collapse as mismanagement by the Akufo-Addo government.

In a post, Hon. Ato Forson points out that this is so because of the ten countries on the list, Ghana is the only one that is not facing war or political stability issues.

“Bloomberg says Ghana is one of the top ten states likely to have its economy collapse on the heels of public debt overhang and default. Sadly, we are the only country on the list with continuity and stability, defiling all odds. This can only be due to mismanagement and recklessness!” he tweeted.

The tweet comes in the wake of the classification of Ghana among 10 countries globally by CFR Sovereign Risk Tracker that is at risk of debt distress.

Per the rankings, Ghana scored a mark of 10, meaning it has a 50% or higher chance of defaulting in the next five years and seeing its economy grind to a halt.

This comes after the national debt ballooned to an alarming ¢391 billion as of quarter one, 2022.

The Bank of Ghana, which has developed a reputation for reportedly cooking debt figures to make the Akufo-Addo government look good, has claimed that the new debt levels translate into approximately 78% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

However, the International Monetary Fund in April 2022, stated in its Fiscal Monitor shows that Ghana will hit 84.6% of GDP by the end of 2022.

According to the IMF, the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio will increase from 2022 to 88.4% in 2026, before falling to 87.4% in 2027.

But prior to that, it will record relatively the same debt-to-GDP ratio of 84% in 2022 and 2023, and later surge to 85% and 86% in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

On its part, the World Bank forecasts that Ghana has exceeded the 80% GDP mark, putting the country in a tighter corner with respect to financing and interest payments.

And yet the Akufo-Addo government has simply been misinforming Ghanaians that the debt to GDP ratio is still in the 70s percentile.

In addition to Ghana, the nine other countries captured by the CFR Sovereign Risk Tracker as very likely to default on debt payments are Argentina, Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Egypt.

Ghana is the only Sub-Saharan African country among the 10 countries and also the only country in the group which is not having any political stability issues.