Economist Prof George Ayittey says Ghana’s government is broke.
“We have a government which is broke. It doesn’t have any savings”, the retired Economist said Thursday.
According to him, “the government has been borrowing a lot of money. Fitch recently downgraded Ghana bonds from a B+ to a B and we have a situation where the country is drifting and we don’t know where we are going”.
He said while tax revenue and grants amount to Ghc17 billion, recurrent expenditure is Ghc15.5 billion and capital expenditure is Ghc5 billion with arrears and interests of Ghc 4 billion, which mean the Government has no savings. “It’s spending more than its revenue”.
At a press briefing on ‘the state of the Ghanaian economy and proposals to reverse the downward trend’, the retired Professor of Economics at the American University and Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said the Government has inherited a “huge structural deficit problem” coupled with “a scourge of corruption” which are further plunging the country’s economy into the abyss.
He said the president must make difficult political choices in order steer the economy back on track.
