B- to CCC+: ‘Where is economic charlatan Bawumia?’ – Kwakye Ofosu on latest credit downgrade

A former deputy Minister under the John Dramani Mahama administration is asking for the whereabout of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of the Republic who is described as the economic ‘messiah’.

Felix Kwakye Ofosu’s search for Dr. Bawumia is against the backdrop of the latest economic downgrade by S&P Global Ratings, the agency

Read full articlehas downgraded the economy from B-/B to CCC+/C.

In a post on his Facebook timeline, Kwakye Ofosu noted that, “it’s getting more funerial for the Ghanaian economy as S&P too downgrades our credit rating from B- to CCC+.

“Where is that economic charlatan Bawumia?” he asked.

American credit rating agency, Standard and Poor's (S&P) Global Ratings on Friday, August 5, pushed Ghana's debt further into speculative territory, lowering its foreign and local currency sovereign ratings to CCC+/C from B-/B.

According to a report by marketwatch.com, S&P said its outlook for the country is negative, "reflecting Ghana's limited commercial financing options, and constrained external and fiscal buffers."

S&P which is one of the ‘Big Three’ credit-rating agencies, including Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings in their report stated that the “Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Russia have magnified Ghana's fiscal and external imbalances.”

"There is also demand for foreign currency that has been driven higher by several factors, including nonresident outflows from domestic government bond markets, dividend payments to foreign investors and higher costs for refined petroleum products," the report stated further.

S&P Global Ratings noted that Ghana has also been affected by a lack of access to Eurobond markets with local authority's passage of a levy on electronic transactions and legislation to tighten exemptions on tax payments including for VAT, among other moves.

"While these changes could improve the tax take going forward, the situation remains challenging, and over the first half of 2022, the fiscal deficit has exceeded the government's ambitious target," S&P Global Ratings stated.

The agency had affirmed Ghana's ratings in February, as Moody's downgraded the country to Caa1 with a stable outlook.



PEN/SARA