Fitch report not important - Pratt

Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has pooh poohed the recent economic grading conducted by Fitch, an international rating agency on Ghana.

Fitch, in an e-mailed statement lowered Ghana’s credit rating to B from B+. The B is five levels below investment grade and comes at a time when Ghana is struggling to narrow a fiscal gap that rose to 12.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’, Kwesi Pratt said the report is not ‘important’ because the objectives of Fitch are different from that of Ghana.

“The report is not important…because they all have their objectives and it will not coincide with Ghanaian interest and objectives. We have a choice, but we have allowed their report to control us,” he said.

He said if the country will stop importing and rather focus on maximizing the resources in the country, such reports will not matter to us.

“If we were to maximize our resources from oil and so on; we will not borrow and be in this current situation. If we stop importing unnecessary things, the Fitch report will not even matter to us. We need to have fundamental restructuring of our economy and stop doing the same things we have done and failed over the years,” he suggested.