World Bank Country Director speaks on Ghana’s ailing economy

Government insists COVID-19 to blame for most economic headaches

CEO of Public Sector Reforms secretariat replies World Bank Country Director

The impact of COVID-19 on Ghana’s economy cannot be discounted especially because even the global economy was so impacted that multilateral lenders like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, IMF, were also broke at a point.

This is the view advanced by Thomas Kusi-Boafo, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Sector Reforms Secretariat, who insists that Ghana’s economy was struggling but had been dealt a further hit by the pandemic.

In an interview with Kwesi Aboagye on the March 10 edition of NEAT FM’s morning show, ‘Ghana Montie,’ Kusi-Boafo stated that the WB and IMF were broke to the extent that it was agreed that developed countries print monies tshore up their economies.

Some of the printed monies were subsequently channeled through the lenders by way of loans and other COVID-19 interventions to countries around the world.

“The World Bank went broke, let me tell everybody, the World Bank, IMF were broke. The major financiers of the two institutions including the US, Germany, France, China were all suffering, the WB, IMF was completely broke and it was eventually agreed that developed countries needed to print money to boost their economies.

“The US printed 13 billion dollars and the others printed 17 trillion by 2020 and it was this same money the US used to fund the World Bank and gave some to developing countries for support,” he alleged.

He added that instead of suspending some payments at the height of the pandemic including social intervention programmes, the government took a bold decision against doing so.

He pointed at obvious revenue shortfalls recorded during lockdowns and reiterated the president’s bold stance on knowing how to save the economy but opting to save lives with drastic decisions including borrowin

His comment comes days after the World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Mr Pierre Laporte indicated that not every financial problem should be attributed to the pandemic because in the case of Ghana, the economy was already struggling before the outbreak of the pandemic.

Mr Laporte said his outfit had spoken to the President, Finance Minister and other key stakeholders, who “acknowledged the severity of the situation.”

“Yes, COVID-19 has not helped, but even before COVID-19, there were signs that the situation was getting a little bit more challenging. The key thing is to be transparent with the people”, he noted.

Adding that, “Is it a really serious situation? Well, the numbers speak for themselves. The situation is very serious. At the World Bank, we’ve not hidden the fact when we’ve held discussions with government officials and even the head of state that, Ghana faces a very tough road ahead to restore macro sustainability.”