Ghana's Economic Crisis - Expert Insights Into How Things Got So Bad - and What the Fixes Are TC_Africa: Ghana
against the US dollar - a signal of the depth of the country's economic crisis.
Over the past few months, various scholars have written important articles for The Conversation Africa on the state of Ghana's economy, how it got into this situation and on the International Monetary Fund's involvement. Here are four essential reads.By the year 2000, the government of Ghana had borrowed so much that the country was in debt distress. It then subscribed to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
However, the debt stock has since risen by 7000% to US$54 billion, which is 78% of GDP. In this article, economist Adu Owusu Sarkodiewhy, between 2017 and 2019, Ghana's debt stock grew astronomically. He argues that, beyond the normal drivers, there were three main reasons: the country's energy sector debt, the financial sector clean-up exercise undertaken by the country's central bank and the impact of the COVID pandemic.
But when the IMF announces a visit to a country in Africa, the news can cause concern. This is because IMF policies can have a direct impact on the lives of people living in those countries. It can also cause concern because the public gets little information about the purpose of the IMF's visit - or its likely outcomes. In this
, law professor Danny Bradlow removes some of the mystery surrounding IMF visits to a country. He unpacks the reasons why the IMF sends its staff on"missions" to a country and what can be expected in each case.Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox