Don’t believe the facade of economic recovery, Ghana still in ICU – Joe Jackson

Business Consultant and Director of Operations at Dalex Finance Joe Jackson has described the Ghanaian economy as one that is in Intensive Care (ICU) downplaying assertions the economy has gained stability.

Ghana last week reached a staff level agreement with the IMF for a release of a second 600 million dollars under the 3bn IMF bailout. Finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta had described the development as signs the economy was seeing a rebound and recovering.

But Speaking to Francis Abban on GHOne TV’s State of affairs, Joe Jackson disagrees with the assertions.

“The best analogy I can give was that somebody had a road crash, entered into a coma, was rushed to the hospital and was given some blood transfusion and now his condition is described as stable. But the person is still very sick, let’s be clear”, he said.

“Last year, we suffered bad crash and in December last year we raised up our hands and said we cannot pay [our debts] and everything was going south with us going downhill at a horrendous rate. In March we signed bailout agreement with the IMF which gave us some blood transfusions and gave us some life, but we are still in intensive care let nobody be deceived”, he added.

Reacting to assertions the macroeconomic indicators have seen improvements since the beginning of the IMF programme, Joe Jackson argues the magnitude of improvement doesn’t qualify to be classified as a turn around.

“It’s like I had a BP of 180/140 and today I have come down to 160/120. The numbers are looking better than they did, but my BP is still high. That is the situation now. It is an economy with high taxation, high interest rate and high inflation with some semblance of foreign exchange stability”, he argued.

Joe Jackson adds any form of complacency could lead to a relapse in the country’s dire economic situation.

“This economy needs careful management, this economy is still in intensive care, and you cannot take your eye of the monitors for a minute. If we do, things could go south very very quickly”, he concluded.

Meanwhile, Leader of the IMF delegation in Ghana, Stephane Roudet reveals a board approval for the disbursement is tied to government’s ability to reach an MOU on the restructuring of its external debts with creditors.