Stop talking down economy - Minister of Finance to analysts

daniel russell

August 6, 2015 10:34 AM

Analysts in the course of the year have had reasons to criticize the performance of the economy, with a local currency which has already depreciated by close to 30 per cent.

Minister of Finance, Seth Tekper

Minister of Finance, Seth Tekper has charged economic analysts to stop talking the Ghanaian economy down, emphasizing that a careful analysis of the macro economic outlook and expected inflows promise a more robust economic situation towards the end of the year.

According to the finance minister, as expected donor funds come in, coupled with the cocoa syndicated the loan and Ghana’s latest $ 1.5 billion Euro bond which is now in parliament for approval and the $1.8 billion cocoa syndicated loan all come in the country’s revenue situation will improve and with it the dwindle local currency.

On Wednesday, the Association of Ghana Industries released their second quarter Business Barometer Report which revealed that confidence of businesses and industry players in the performance of the economy had reduced.

Speaking at a signing ceremony of Ghana’s latest $620 million dollar partial risk guarantee with the World Bank, finance minister, Seth Tekper said,

"Analysts should stop talking down the economy. On the issue of energy insufficiency, government has just committed $7.9 billion dollars as investment into the power sector with the help of the world bank. The Sankofa Gas Project is a paramount part of that. Also, dollar inflows from the cocoa syndicated loan and the planned Euro-bond will help stabilize the performance of the cedi. These are real expected inflows. The unfortunate talking down of the economy will not help anything. The partial risk guaranty we just signed with the world bank will help.”

daniel russell