By Elorm DESEWU Standard & Poors, one of the world’s rating agencies, has cut Ghana’s outlook to negative, based on a deteriorating macro-economic environment. According to S&P, “the negative outlook reflects the likelihood of a downgrade if the planned fiscal correction is not fully implemented or debt financing challenges intensify in the context of shallow domestic market and we can global risk appetite.” S&P rates Ghana as B+ on its long term and B on its short-term rating and had previously had the country on a stable outlook. According to S&P, the rating was still supported by the prospect of significant oil production by the last quarter of this year. Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission to Ghana endorsed the government’s macro-economic targets. The IMF estimates that the economy expanded by 3 – 4 percent in 2009, notwithstanding the global crisis, as cocoa and gold exports remained strong. This is down from 7.3% in 2008 a year of highly...