Pratt: Talk Of Ghana�s State Of Indebtedness Just Empty Noise; Ghana Is Not Returning To HIPC

There has been a lot of noise about the state of Ghana�s indebtedness. This is just noise. A lot of it is just noise; empty noise and it is calculated at throwing dust into the eyes of the Ghanaian people� said Editor of the �Insight� newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. The renowned journalist said this in reaction to the recent press conference organized by the minority in parliament on the state of the country�s economy. The Minority, led by MP for Tafo Pankrono, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, at a press conference in Parliament on Thursday expressed worry about the rate at which the ruling government is borrowing (rate of GH�1.1 billion per month) saying it could collapse the economy. At the said press conference, the former Minister of State in charge of Finance stated that the " economic situation has now deteriorated into complete crisis" warning that the country risks losing its B+ credit rating. According to him, the country is at a 49.5% debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio and that means the country is on the verge of crossing the 50% threshold. "There is now consensus, even within government, that the economic situation has now deteriorated into complete crisis....It also needs to be pointed out that this 49.5% debt ratio means the country is on the verge of crossing the 50% threshold. Beyond this threshold, international credit rating agencies will downgrade our credit rating," However, speaking on Radio Gold�s political discussion programme, �Alhaji and Alhaji�, Kwesi Pratt posited that Minority�s assessment of the current state of the economy is just �calculated at throwing dust into the eyes of the Ghanaian people�. To him, talk of Ghana�s state of indebtedness is just for �political expediency� and �empty noise�. �....they (Minority) are saying the debt to GDP ratio is 49.5%; that itself is contestable�for developing countries like Ghana, the alarm bell starts ringing at the point where the GDP ratio is 60%. So from the statistics that they themselves are giving, Ghana is about 10% clear in that zone and yet they deliberately create the impression that we have arrived at the danger zone and that Ghana might be returning to HIPC,� Kwesi Pratt said. He said the question of what the money has been used for (as asked by the minority) is mischievous because government has �invested the money into infrastructural development; road construction and so on� and advised that government announces it so that Ghanaians will know that the money has been used for development.