World Bank commends Ghana’s ‘positive’ economic growth
The World Bank has hailed Ghana’s economic growth for 2017, describing it as “positive”.
The World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone,
Mr Henry Kerali, has said the country’s impressive growth was due to
good microeconomic policy management and economic stabilisation as well
as improvement in physical balances.
He made the comments at a recent stakeholder forum organised by the
American Chamber of Commerce, Ghana on the topic “Ghana’s Economy Moving
from Stabilization to Growth”.
Mr Kerali said Ghana’s inflation rate was close to the central bank’s
target of 8 percent and that average lending rate has also come down.
He said although Ghana recorded one of its biggest drops in the
latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report – from 108 in 2017 to
120 in 2018 – it still did better than other giants in the West Africa
sub-region.
Despite the drop, Ghana still took the top spot as the best place for
doing business in sub-region, beating Ivory Coast, Senegal, The Gambia,
and the biggest economy, Nigeria.
The World Bank Business Report provides objective measures of
business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and
selected cities at the sub-national and regional level.
It assesses the countries based on 11 indicators such as starting a
business, access to a credit facility, registering a property, access to
electricity, paying taxes, protecting minority investors, trading
across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
Chairman of Ismael Yamson and Associates, Dr Ishmael Yamson, who also
spoke at the forum said the government must not only focus on “Ghana
beyond Aid” but also “Ghana beyond Debt” since the country’s debt keeps
increasing.
He said there was the need to create avenues to generate money for the country for developmental projects.
He expressed concern about the way corruption had been
institutionalised and called on institutions to be proactive and address
the menace.
Ms Ayesha Bedwei, Tax Partner at PWC Ghana, said the country is faced
with a general problem of indiscipline – tax evasion, corruption and
lawlessness – in a way that stifles development.
She called on authorities to sanction individuals who flout the laws to serve as a deterrent to potential offenders.
Source: GNA
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