Professor of Economics at CEIBS\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Bala Ramasamy\u00a0says Ghana must stop blaming external factors for its current economic crisis and rather focus on solving its internal economic challenges.<\/p>\n
\u2018Certainly eternal factors are important and sometimes they dominate but I think it is also important for us to stop blaming them all the time because despite the changing eternal factors there are still others that are making it.\u2019<\/p>\n
Government over the past two years has attributed the problems facing the economy among others to declining\u00a0commodity prices and the US tapering program which it believes contributed to the cedis decline in the first quarter of this year.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Bala Ramasamy\u00a0speaking on Citi FM\u2019s business edition said Ghana has been badly affected by these external factors because it has not managed\u00a0its\u00a0internal affairs well.<\/p>\n
\u2018So I think we need to be careful, just like I think we keep blaming government all the time. The external factors are important, am not disputing that, but my point, coming from another developing country, I think I have heard enough where we keep on\u00a0 blaming the US, Britain, Japan etc but we need to get our house in order as well so the external factors become less important to us\u2019.<\/p>\n
Some government officials say Ghana\u2019s economic crisis started escalating two years ago following the recession that hit the West.<\/p>\n
The development saw a drop in commodity prices among others.<\/p>\n
Lower commodity prices for example led to a plunge in the country\u2019s revenue.<\/p>\n
In 2013 for example according to that bank of Ghana on the commodities markets, crude oil prices slowed down during the second half of 2013, between US$100 and US$105 per barrel, while Gold declined from US$1,525 to US$1,200 per fine ounce, cocoa prices on the other hand was broadly stable at about US$2,470 per tonne.<\/p>\n
According to the bank of Ghana the developments in the external environment continued to impact on the domestic economy, as declines in commodity prices affected external sector performance.<\/p>\n
But Dr.\u00a0Bala Ramasamy\u00a0believes Ghana has itself to blame for the development.<\/p>\n
According to him Ghana must add value to its commodities before export to increase its value.<\/p>\n
\u2018If you can increase the value of, for, example your agric products then you can call the shots. Any country that is only producing commodity is poor and Malaysia recognized this and changed.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Let\u2019s get real 60-70 years after the British have left and we are still blaming the British for our problems the thing is doing that will not change where we are today. The world has changed 60 -70 years later, we cannot blame the British anymore\u2019.<\/p>\n
He also blames leadership for Africa\u2019s difficulty in adding value to its agric products over the years and believes a good leader must be able to utilize the market and support the way it works.<\/p>\n
By: \u00a0Vivian Kai Mensah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n
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Professor of Economics at CEIBS\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Bala Ramasamy\u00a0says Ghana must stop blaming external factors for its current economic crisis and rather focus on solving its internal economic challenges. \u2018Certainly eternal factors are important and sometimes they dominate but I think it is also important for us to stop blaming them all the time because despite the changing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":20460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[21,4],"yoast_head":"\n