Trade and Migration

Ghana's economic growth has been rapid since the start of the new millennium, reaching 14% in 2011, but economic performance has been relatively lower since then, particularly from 2013-2016. Important factors for the slowing of development are the huge infrastructural deficit and the limited fiscal space, but Ghana has the potential for improvement thanks to its large natural resource deposits.

Agriculture is a significant contributor to the Ghanaian economy and an important source of employment, with over 40% of all workers engaged in farming. With growth and development, the country is gradually shifting away from this sector towards industry and services, but agriculture is still key for the economy, and a necessary vehicle for reducing poverty and food insecurity.

Even with Ghana’s impressive economic growth in recent times, the country’s industries still lag behind the services sector in its contribution to both GDP and employment. Ghanaian manufacturers struggle to overcome the difficulties posed by infrastructure problems, informality, and the lack of skilled labour and good management practices. Financial constraints, high cost of doing business, and difficulties to access credit also make growth harder for companies of all sizes.

La guerra comercial entre Estados Unidos y China ha llevado a muchos analistas a centrarse en el daño económico que sufren las dos partes: golpea los bolsillos de los consumidores estadounidenses y perjudica a los exportadores chinos.

En los últimos 25 años se ha logrado sacar de la pobreza a casi 1.200 millones de personas en todo el mundo, al mismo tiempo que la desnutrición y el riesgo de muerte por contaminación ambiental han disminuido. En conjunto, estos logros son prácticamente un milagro. Pero dos tendencias globales hoy amenazan con desacelerar el impulso en la reducción de la pobreza.

This year, the world will spend $US162 billion ($230bn) subsidising renewable energy, propping up inefficient industries and supporting middle-class homeowners to erect solar panels, according to the International Energy Agency. In addition, the Paris Agreement on climate change will cost the world from $US1 trillion to $US2 trillion a year by 2030. Astonishingly, neither of these hugely expensive policies will have any measurable impact on temperatures by the end of the century.

The trade war between the United States and China has prompted many commentators to focus on the economic pain that will be felt by the two sides: hitting U.S. consumers in the pocket, and causing pain for Chinese exporters. There are a small number of supposed winners, with production predicted to shift from China to countries like Vietnam, Cambodia or India.

But there’s a far bigger concern, which is that decision-makers across the world have shifted sharply against the most powerful global economic development tool ever been discovered.

Kiedy USA i Chiny są pośrodku wielkiego sporu o handel, Biały Dom renegocjuje istniejące porozumienia o wolnym handlu, by zamienić je w porozumienia o ”kontrolowanym handlu”, a nastroje zwróciły się przeciwko wolnemu handlowi na całym świecie.

Niemniej na Forum Światowym w Davos japoński premier Shinzo Abe i niemiecka kanclerz Angela Merkel wezwali do zwiększenia wolnego handlu i multilateralizmu.

As the U.S. and China are locked in a major trade dispute, the White House is renegotiating existing free-trade agreements to turn them into "managed trade" agreements, and the mood has turned against freer trade around the world. 

Yet, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel both made calls for more free trade and multilateralism.

De bæredygtige udviklingsmål har vakt stor begejstring, og med målene er der opstillet en ambitiøs vision for 2030. Men hvordan vil verden i virkeligheden se ud, når vi kommer til 2030? 

En ting, vi ved næsten med sikkerhed, er, at verden vil være meget mere velstående – ikke på grund af udviklingsmålene som sådan, men på grund af menneskets snilde og fremskridt.