COVID-19 to impact significantly on the economy

The impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the economy will be significant for 2020, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison has said.

He noted that COVID-19 was a global one, unprecedented and not like anything that the world had seen before.

“At the global level, this is worse than the shock that happened in 1930. So, it is something that we have not seen on this level.

“In terms of Ghana, we will need to have some more observations in order to really understand the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said when he appeared as a guest on “GraphicTalks”, a special Graphic Business interview programme, which was hosted by the Editor of the paper, Mr Theophilus Yartey, live online Thursday.

He recounted that Ghana has had a very bad economic history prior to the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986-1987 and that Ghana was not there yet.  

According to him, some of the initial economic indicators that were looked at for the first quarter of this year came in relatively strong, looking at the export of gold and even cocoa.

“On the other hand, oil exports have been significantly impacted because oil prices have declined sharply. So, we do have some strong points and some relatively weak points. If you look at the private sector’s contribution to social security, you also get the sense on the impact on employment,” he said.