GRi Business, Economics & Finance 09 – 06 - 2003
HIPC initiative should reflect country's vulnerability
Inter-bank exchange rates of the cedi
Ghana Telecom to install new switch system in Kumasi
HIPC initiative should reflect country's vulnerability
"This
has become a critical issue since over-optimistic economic projections and the
risk posed by the 'external shocks' such as commodity price falls affect the
long term debt sustainability," he said.
Osafo-Maafo said this when he opened a two-day joint Commonwealth Secretariat/World
Bank workshop in Accra on long-term debt sustainability in the context of
achieving the Millennium Goals (MDGs).
The
workshop seeks to provide a broad framework effort by the International
Community to revisit the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) initiative with
a view to assessing its effectiveness in addressing the need to attain
long-term debt sustainability.
Osafo-Marfo said with the current growth rates of
He said
the problem faced by the poor countries called for increased flow of resources
to immediately compensate for external shocks.
This, Osafo-Marfo said, explained HIPC's
support to the new global financing initiative proposal made by Gordon Brown,
the
"This
will allow the front loading of aid flows to support countries' poverty
reduction strategies in order to achieve the MDGs,"
he said. The Minister noted that the recent economic slowdown, coupled with the
significant declines in many primary commodity prices had weakened growth and
export performance of HIPC in the last two years.
"Virtually
all HIPC and developing countries are heavily dependent on primary commodities
for their export earnings and government revenue, and as a result would remain
vulnerable to adverse exogenous developments," he said.
Osafo-Marfo said indications were that the debt of some countries that had reached
the HIPC completion point might also remain unsustainable due to the
unlikely-hood of some creditors to provide relief as anticipated.
Besides,
he said current statistics had indicated that 20 countries were in their
interim period gearing up to face similar challenges. He said it was the hope
that
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Inter-bank exchange rates of the cedi
Currency Buying Selling
U.S.
Dollar 8,577.82 8,750.36
Pound
Swiss
Franc 6,482.94
6,610.84
Canadian
Dollar 6,312.63 6,434.69
Danish Kroner 1,350.42 1,376.94
Japanese
Yen 72.42 73.84
South
African
Euro 10,024.93 10,222.78
CFA
Franc 15.28
15.58
Naira 68.14
69.51
ECOWAS
WAUA 12,200.83
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The new
switch system would ease telephone congestion and increase subscriber from
22,000 lines to 55,000 lines. Nana
"The
project is one of the major expansion works by the Company since 1994 and when
completed additional 23,000 lines would be available for distribution."
Nana Tannor attributed the congestion to the constant use of the
lines by subscribers, proliferation of communication centres and the effect of
the Internet service operators in the Metropolis.
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