Fitch downgrades Ghana's credit ratings from B- to CCC.

Fitch Credit Ratings Agency.

Fitch has downgraded its creditworthiness assessment of Ghana from B- to CCC. This comes after Standard and Poor’s (S& P) downgrade of Ghana's creditworthiness from B-B to CCC+/C.

The government, meanwhile, has expressed its disappointment at Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade Ghana notwithstanding the bold measures put in place in 2022 to resolve the macro fiscal challenges and debt sustainability, both of which have been substantially aggravated by the effect of these global extrinsic shocks, namely Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The international and local currency credit ratings for Ghana were lowered by Standard & Poor's Global Ratings on August 5 from B-/B to CCC+/C with a negative outlook.

In response, the Finance Ministry released a statement in which the government pledged to continue taking measures to mitigate the negative effects of internal and international economic pressures on Ghanaian citizens.

The administration has supposedly undertaken major income and expenditure initiatives, such as the 30% decrease in discretionary spending.

"The delays in the passage of key revenue measures introduced in the 2022 budget affected revenues performance in the first half of the year." the statement explained.

However, it claimed that, all revenue measures included in the 2022 budget, have now been promulgated by parliament. This includes the revision of the MDA fees and charges bill, the tax exemption bill, and the e-levy bill.

These fiscal measures, the statement noted are now in full implementation mode “to support our fiscal and debt sustainability”.

The government has stated its dedication and confidence in overcoming these difficulties as quickly as possible.

Source: ghananews.hrforum.uk