The victory of the Black Stars of Ghana over South Korea in the second group match of the World Cup dominates the headlines of Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana Black Stars put up a compellingly radiating performance to beat South Korea 2-1 in their second Group H World Cup game at the Education City Stadium in Al-Rayyan yesterday.
The combatively-fought victory, clutched on a riveting afternoon of football, reignited the team’s hopes of advancing to the next stage of the competition after their opening 3-2 loss to Portugal.
The result was what the Stars needed heading into the nerve-jangling ‘killer’ game with ‘sworn enemies’ Uruguay at the Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah on Friday, December 2.
Exotic goals from two Mohammeds – central defender Salisu and attacking midfielder Kudus, who struck a double, set the 40,000-capacity edifice ablaze as the enchanting Ghanaian fans drummed, sang, clapped and danced in salute of the gallant team.
Ghana had enjoyed the lion’s share heading into yesterday’s game – beating their opponents in three of the four previous occasions that their paths crossed in friendlies. But the Koreans were determined to prove to Ghana they were a different entity this time around.
Yesterday’s victory was Ghana’s first since losing to Uruguay at the quarter-final stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In the 2014 edition in Brazil, they slumped 2-1 in their opening game against USA, shared the spoils with eventual winners Germany (2-2) before bowing 1-2 to Portugal to crash out.
Defeat against South Korea would have seen Ghana becoming the second after host nation Qatar to pack home. Heartily, the Stars survived it and are in for to compete for glory.
The newspaper says that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission arrived in the country yesterday to have further negotiation with the government.
According to a source, the IMF mission would be meeting the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Finance and other relevant institutions.
The negotiation is expected to end in the middle of December baring any unforeseen circumstances.
Ghana is expecting to receive $3 billion dollars over three years from the IMF, if a staff- level agreement s is reached.
The 2023 budget presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister, KenOfori-Atta will feature keenly in the negotiation.
Also debt restructuring would feature prominently in the discussions of the IMF team with the government to give the country some fiscal space.
A successful IMF programme would give the country policy credibility and also restore macroeconomic stability.
President Akufo-Addo on July 1, 2022 directed the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to begin formal engagements with the International Monetary Fund, for an economic programme.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has increased the monetary policy rate by 250 basis points from 24.5 per cent to 27.0 per cent on the back of rising inflation on the domestic and global fronts.
“The inflation forecast shows that in the outlook, inflation will likely peak in the first quarter of 2023 and settle at around 25 percent by the end of 2023. This forecast is conditioned on the continued maintenance of tight monetary policy stance and the deployment of tools to contain excess liquidity in the economy,” Dr Ernest Addison, Governor of BoG announced this at a press conference in Accra yesterday after the 109th regular at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the BoG.
Dr Addison who is the chairman of the MPC said “The Committee is of the view that significant upside risks to the inflation outlook remain. To continue to anchor inflation expectations, the Committee therefore decided to increase the policy rate by 250 basis points to 27.0 percent,” and there was the need to increase the MPC rate.
The policy rate is the rate at which the BoG lends to commercial banks in the country.
He said on the global level, global headline inflation remained elevated and had broadened beyond food and energy prices, with several other factors adding to inflationary pressures.
That, he said, included tighter labour market conditions, the pass-through effects of currency depreciations to inflation, and supply chain cost pressures, stressing that the International Monetary Fund projected global inflation to reach 8.8 percent by the end of 2022, before gradually declining to 4.1 percent in 2024.
“Global financing conditions have tightened further, reflecting in large part the aggressive policy rate increases across several Advanced Economies to re-anchor the persistent rise in inflation. The US dollar has strengthened, and longer-term bond yields have risen sharply because of sustained policy tightening in response to high inflation concerns. This has triggered currency pressures and volatility in equity markets across Emerging Markets and Developing Economies,” Dr Addison, stated.
On the domestic front, the Governor said inflation had remained elevated, with strong underlying inflationary pressures.
He said price developments suggested that the upturn of headline inflation in October 2022 was driven largely by food price pressures and to some extent additional pressures from the currency depreciation.
He said the Bank’s Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) contracted by 1.2 percent in September 2022, compared with 11.1 percent growth, a year earlier and the main indicators that dragged down the Index were domestic VAT, ports activity, and cement sales.
“There are, however, some risks to this forecast that would have to be monitored, including additional pressures from the proposed VAT increase, and exchange rate pressures. Continued vigilance to the evolution of these potential price pressures in the outlook will be key,” Dr Addison said.
The newspaper also says that former President John Dramani Mahama has called on Ghanaians to join hands in the government’s effort to put back the economy on track.
This, he said, was the only way the country’s economy could be saved from the eminent collapse starring it.
“Let us all hold hands together as Ghanaians beyond political and family considerations to make sure that we recover this economy; if you are in opposition and you are happy with what is happening now and the economy collapses, there will be no country to inherit even if you win power in 2024”, he said.
The former President made the observation at Wa on Sunday during the final Islamic funeral rites (Adua) of the late Alhaji Mumuni Mankaama, a former regional executive of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party who died and was buried on November 7.
The late Alhaji Mankaama, who left behind five wives and fifteen children was a former youth organizer and later, a regional executive and contributed to the gains of the party in the region.
Former President Mahama claimed that even though the hardship and economic setback the country was experiencing were as a result of mismanagement by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government, as patriotic citizens, Ghanaians must do the little they could to help restore the fortunes of the state.
Touching on the late Alhaji Mankaama, Mr Mahama described his passing on as shocking, but expressed the hope that his soul was at the right place.
The former President described the deceased as a “kind and God fearing man” of integrity, who rendered his sincere services to humanity and the nation without a shred of malice.
“The late Alhaji Mumuni Mankaama was a great listener, adviser, a teacher and apolitician who cared so much about his subjects, I pray he fine peace with his marker,“ he said.
He extended a word of advice to the mourners to learn from the exemplary life of the deceased particularly, candidates who failed to acquire the nod to continue in the next administration as party executives in the just ended regional elections of the party.
GIK/APA