{"id":11425,"date":"2014-04-07T16:48:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T16:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=11425"},"modified":"2014-04-07T16:51:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T16:51:27","slug":"ghana-will-be-better-off-if-it-signs-epa-world-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=11425","title":{"rendered":"Ghana will be better off if it signs EPA\u2026..World Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/wrld-bank.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11545\" alt=\"wrld bank\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/wrld-bank.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a>The World Bank is making a strong case for Ghana and other members of ECOWAS to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>According to the bank, the region\u2019s manufacturing exports could see a major boost if the agreement is signed. The call stands contrary to submissions made by civil society groups that the agreement could crash the manufacturing sectors of member states.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a press briefing of the Bank\u2019s biannual African Pulse report on Monday, Chief Economist of the World Bank&#8217;s Africa Region, Francisco Ferreira said the manufacturing sector\u2019s contribution to Gross Domestic Product was declining and the agreement could potentially support the sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think the EPA could help improve the manufacturing exports in the region.\u00a0 When we talk about the manufacturing decline in GDP, it is a share. Manufacturing has continued to grow but it is growing more slowly than other sectors. Particularly it is growing more slowly than other sectors and natural sources\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement if signed will warrant that within two decades, about 80% of that country\u2019s market should open to European goods and services tariff-free.<\/p>\n<p>The World Bank in its latest Africa Pulse report is projecting economic growth rate for sub-Saharan Africa at 5.2 percent for this year. This is an increase from last year&#8217;s growth rate of 4.7 percent.<\/p>\n<p>The strong projection is underpinned by rising investment in natural resources and infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Inflation in the region last year declined significantly to 6.3percent from 10.7 percent recorded in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Special mention was made of Ghana as having recorded a high inflation rate because of the declining cedi.<\/p>\n<p>Capital flows to Sub-Saharan Africa increased from 3.9percent to 5.3 percent of GDP last year, while net foreign direct investment also grew by 16percent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By:\u00a0 Anim Kwaku Boadu\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The World Bank is making a strong case for Ghana and other members of ECOWAS to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. According to the bank, the region\u2019s manufacturing exports could see a major boost if the agreement is signed. The call stands contrary to submissions made by civil society groups [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":11545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,4],"class_list":["post-11425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-psychiatric","tag-st-augustines-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}