Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of the Republic of Ghana has said the high costs of food are hurting the poor, especially the urban poor, the most in Ghana in the era of the Ukraine and Russia War as well as the Pandemic Covid-19.
He said Ghana is experiencing the highest inflation for 21 years due to the Pandemic and Ukraine Russian War.
The President said this when he addressed the second day of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday (September 21, 2022).
Nana Akufo-Addo said the spillover from central banks raising interest rates to combat inflation has been severe beyond borders, as global investors pull money out of developing economies to invest in bonds in the developed world.
According to him, this has led to depreciating currencies and increased borrowing costs; meaning we need to raise and spend more of our own currencies to
service our foreign debts in US dollars.
“It has become clear, if ever there was any doubt, that the international financial structure is skewed significantly against developing and
emerging economies like Ghana. The avenues that are opened to powerful nations to enable them to take measures that would ease pressures on their economies are closed to small nations. To make matters worse, credit rating agencies have been quick to downgrade economies in Africa, making it harder to service our debts. The tag of Africa as an investment risk is little more than, in substance, a self-fulfilling prophecy created by the prejudice of the international money market, which denies us access to cheaper borrowing, pushing us deeper into debts.”
Source: Mybrytfmonline/ Kofi Atakora
