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Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting today
Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting today

LIVE: Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting today

The Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting comes off today at the plush Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.

The event, the fourth and final for the year, is on the theme: “17 Times too many! What should we stop doing and start doing as a people’’?

Key personalities from academia, civil society organisations, international organisations, trade associations, among others, are expected to grace the occasion to share their thoughts on how the country’s economy can be restored to its former glory in order to avoid a return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.

The quarterly event, which has Stanbic Bank, one of the best bank’s in the country, as the main sponsor, has its theme divided into three main perspectives to offer panel members the opportunity to discuss in detail, the challenges and proffer solutions for consideration in the budget.

The perspectives are: “The Challenge; What is, Has been and Why”; “Alternative Homegrown Solutions, Options and Requirements” and “What Ghana Must Do Differently”.

Speakers

As a platform to offer suggestions into the 2023 budget statement, the organisers have assembled some of the top brains in the country to discuss the theme.

They include Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin, one of the country’s finest economists, a professor of finance and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon; Mr Kwame Wiafe, Managing Director of Wilmar Ghana, to represent the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), among others.

The event will be chaired by Dr Priscilla Twumasi Baffuor, an astute economist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana.

The event comes at a time when the government is rallying all and sundry to come together to help turn around the economy.

Economic challenges

In the last few years, global events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the raging Russia/Ukraine war, have created a lot of challenges for many economies including that of Ghana.

The country’s inflation rate stood at 37.2 per cent with the rate expected to rise again in October. The trend is an indication that the government is likely to miss the revised target of about 28 per cent at the end of the year.

The cedi has heavily depreciated since the first quarter of the year and lending rates are now hovering around an average of 33 per cent.

Fuel prices, since January this year to date, have risen by more than 160 per cent, pushing transport fares up almost every quarter since the beginning of the year.

According to the Bank of Ghana, the country’s stock of gross international reserves declined to US$6.6 billion, equivalent to 2.9 months of import cover for goods and services in September 2022. This compares with the December 2021 position of US$9.7 billion, equivalent to 4.3 months of import cover. Net International Reserves, which exclude encumbered assets and petroleum funds, is estimated at US$2.7 billion also as of September 2022.

The World Bank in its Africa Pulse Report released in October, projected that Ghana would end the year with a Debt –to –GDP ratio of 104 per cent.

These, among many other issues, will take centre stage as the panellists and participants share ideas and make recommendations into the budget.

The recommendations are expected to help the government to plan well in order to prevent another economic crisis and prevent the country from going back to the Breton Woods for a bail-out.

The event will be LIVEstreamed (below) from 7am;

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