BUSINESS NEWS | GHANA AND BEYOND 🌍 10/10/2023

🚩The Ghana cedi is expected to strengthen by roughly 1.0% to the US dollar in 2024, Fitch Solutions has disclosed in its latest Country Risk on Ghana. This will make it one of the best-performing currencies in Africa during the period. According to the UK-based firm, the government will make progress regarding the restructuring of Ghana’s external debt under the G20 Common Framework by the second quarter of 2024. This it says will boost investor sentiment towards Ghanaian assets, drive capital inflows, and provide support to the cedi.

🚩The International Monetary Fund said that Ghana will need a debt relief agreement from its official creditors to qualify for further disbursements under a $3 billion extended credit facility program. The Washington-based lender reached a staff-level deal with Ghana on the first review of the program that started in May, Stéphane Roudet, IMF mission chief, said in a statement Friday. Ghana’s dollar bonds rose and were among the best performers in emerging markets. Notes maturing in 2049 gained 0.2 cents to 41.07 cents on the dollar by 2:14 p.m. in London.

🚩Government through the Ministry of Finance is seeking to comprehensively redesign the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy). According to a Joy News report, the move forms part of government’s Medium Term Revenue Strategy seeking to revamp and optimize the taxation policy for much better effectiveness and efficiency. The portal added that the comprehensive redesign of the E-Levy could depict a rather forward-thinking approach to taxation in line with the digital age. It added that government will adopt the redesigned taxation policy to boost its revenue generation efforts while broadening the domestic tax base to support key sectors of the economy.

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BUSINESS NEWS | GHANA AND BEYOND 🌍 06/10/2023

🚩Ghana’s inflation of 40.1% is the 4th highest in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, the World Bank October 2023 Africa Pulse Report has revealed. Zimbabwe is 1st with more than 80% inflation and is followed by Sudan (60%) and Sierra Leone (42%). According to the report, food and energy prices are still contributing to driving headline inflation in most countries in the region. By July 2023, it said, nearly half of the countries in the region with monthly available information on food prices (20 of 41 countries) had double-digit year-on-year rates of food inflation, with the fastest increases experienced in Burundi, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

🚩Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic outlook remains bleak amid an elusive growth recovery. According to the latest World Bank Africa’s Pulse report, rising instability, weak growth in the region’s largest economies, and lingering uncertainty in the global economy are dragging down growth prospects in the region. Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to decelerate to 2.5% in 2023, from 3.6% in 2022. South Africa’s GDP is expected to only grow by 0.5% in 2023 as energy and transportation bottlenecks continue to bite. Nigeria and Angola are projected to grow at 2.9% and 1.3% respectively, due to lower international prices and currency pressures affecting oil and non-oil activity.

🚩The World Bank’s October 2023 Africa Pulse report underscores that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) holds significant potential for job creation, potentially yielding approximately 18 million new jobs. The report emphasizes that infrastructure acts as a critical barrier for new businesses, hindering job growth through impediments to firm entry, high operational costs, and limited export competitiveness. These challenges have particularly impacted the energy, digital infrastructure, and transportation sectors across Sub-Saharan Africa, the report notes.

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