Ghana is world’s 14th fastest growing economy in 2013 – EIU

Ghana is ranked 14th among the world’s 20 fastest growing countries for 2013, according to research conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), an independent business within The Economist Group.

By that ranking, Ghana is placed seventh in Africa behind Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Eritrea, Zambia and Rwanda, while Chad, The Gambia, Liberia and Mozambique follow.

This was disclosed by Mr Robert Ward, the Country Director of the EIU, at the start of a two-day conference dubbed “The Ghana Forum” and organised by the The Economist magazine in Accra last Tuesday.

Explaining how Ghana achieved that feat, Mr Ward said, “What Ghana has, which others don’t have, is a stable democracy.”

He, however, urged the country to lessen its dependence on commodities in order to maintain that spot or improve upon it.

He also urged the government to focus on the financial sector, education and manufacturing to go past its current ‘B’ rating.

“Ghana has the opportunity to become the hub for the West African sub-region but it has to deal with its inflation,” he said.

In an interview after the first session, Mr Ward said Ghana’s current fiscal deficit was too large, “so for us this is a big shadow over the economy. What I would like to see are some credible and long-term measures put in place to make fiscal policy predictable and to give investors confidence”.

He explained that Ghana’s ranking was due to the speed of its GDP growth, saying the country was one of the fastest growing in sub-Saharan Africa as well. “Growth this speed, however, is not something that happens forever,” he cautioned.

Mr Ward suggested that for Ghana to improve on its performance, the government had to raise living standards among ordinary people.

Source: Daily Graphic