A former Deputy Finance Minister, Mona Quartey, has said, she has no doubt that Ghana is back in HIPC times as the country experienced in 2001.
She says the reported inflation rates which is the highest since 2001 positions the country as Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC)
According to her, the country is in dire condition and the economic pinch is being felt in the pockets of Ghanaians.
She made this statement on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Wednesday. November 9, 2022.
“[The current inflation rate] is the highest since July 2001 during HIPC times. So there is no doubt that we are back in HIPC times. There is no doubt that we are in dire times, and we are all feeling it in our pockets,” Mrs. Quartey told host Umaru Sanda Amadu.
The former deputy minister in the erstwhile John Mahama administration also noted that, the continuous free fall of the cedi can be attributed to the uncertainty of the future of Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
She said even though several factors have contributed to the depreciation of the cedi, the continuous stay in office of the Finance Minister, whose policies have failed domestically, has eroded the confidence of investors in the Ghanaian economy.
“There is no doubt that the cedi depreciation is based on uncertainty, and part of the uncertainty is the future of us maintaining the Finance Minister. The world and the markets are looking and wondering why we would continue to keep a Finance team that has implemented economic policies that have failed domestically. So that uncertainty is feeding into the depreciation rate,” he said.
Source: theGhanaianvoice.com