Ghana's Economic Review Outlook for 2007 launched

Accra, Sept. 05, GNA - The Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) on Wednesday launched its flagship publication, Ghana's Economic Review Outlook for 2007 commending government for making strides in the economic growth performance for 2007.

The most recent data available indicated an outcome of 6.2 per cent as compared to the overall economic growth of 5.3 in 2006 despite the water and electricity crises.

Dr Nii Noi Ashong an Economist, who launched the document, said government should not be 'swollen headed' by the strides but must work harder to accelerate growth and get on the path towards the medium term goal of middle-income status by 2015. The 122-page comprehensive technical document is tailored to meet the needs of professionals in the field of economic policy making, analysis and governance.

Five other companion volumes under the name "CEPA's Economic Issues" series have been produced to facilitate the dissemination of the findings in the flagship.

The current review covered the core economic disciplines of government budgetary and fiscal operations, money, credit and price development and international trade and payments. Dr Ashong noted that government's commitment to the GPRS 11 goal of "Growth and Stability" would be faced with challenges such as decisive resolution of energy crisis consolidating macroeconomic stability, pursuing structural reforms with reference to financial sector, effective management of wage bill, human resource development, maintaining a competitive exchange rate and judicious use of the opportunities made available by the environment. Dr Joseph L. S. Abbey, Executive Director of CEPA said the assessments were based on modelled patterns of flows of the different categories of revenues and payments and the monthly publications of Financial Statement on the Consolidated Fund in the Gazette by the Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) for the period January to June 2007.

"The assessment of likely outcomes for the year show that the economy has thus far proved resilient to the energy crisis," he added. He said the tax base appeared to have not been eroded by the water and energy crisis, adding, "a possible explanation is that the bulk of electricity is used in the productive sector and the majority of enterprises in this sector have procured alternative sources of energy." Dr Abbey noted that the total revenue that had been projected was likely to exceed the target in the budget by about 10 per cent. "The outcome is driven largely by the extraordinary performance of company tax collections which on present trends could exceed its target by as much as 20 per cent," he emphasised.

Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, Advisor to the President, commended CEPA for putting together the publication and said it would play a vital role solving some of the country's economic challenges. "It is hoped that the ideas and approaches raised would enable analysts and policy makers at the country level to approach their particular challenges with a more informed sense of what may be important and what has worked in the past in other situations," she said. 05 Sept. 07