Ofori-Atta must stop bamboozling Ghanaians with Bible quotes and get real – Prof. Hanke

Professor of Applied Economics at the Johns Hopkins University-USA, Steve Hanke, has called out Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to be realistic in addressing the macroeconomic challenges in the country.

He believes that the trend of the minister using bible quotes during his addresses on the state of the economy is a rather poor strategy to adopt.

In a tweet posted on January 3, 2023, Prof. Steve Hanke described Ken Ofori-Atta's use of the Bible quotations as a 'poor guide for macroeconomics'.

He further called on the under-fire Finance Minister to stop bamboozling Ghanaians with bible quotations and rather confront the economic challenges with pragmatic policies.

“Ghana's Finance Minister Ofori-Atta justified defaulting on debt by quoting the Bible: 'nothing will be lost, nothing will be missing'. The Bible is a poor guide for macroeconomics. It’s time for Ofori-Atta to stop bamboozling Ghanaians and get real,” the renowned economist wrote on Twitter.

It would not be the first time Professor Steve Hanke has called out government officials over their handling of the economy which is now seeking an IMF bailout and recently defaulted on its external debt payments.

The 79-year-old economist has also described Ghana's local currency as 'junk' and labelled the country's inflation trajectory as terrible.

Ghana's Finance Minister Ofori-Atta justified defaulting on debt by quoting the Bible: "nothing will be lost, nothing will be missing." The Bible is a poor guide for macroeconomics. It’s time for Ofori-Atta to stop bamboozling Ghanaians and get real https://t.co/iY1Q1LTVVC

— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) January 2, 2023