Government must focus more on economic stability than jubilating – Economist

An Economist, Dr. Patrick Asuming, has noted that government must keep its focus in the right place instead of simply hoping that the IMF bailout will solve the country’s problems.

According to him, government must be measured in its communication about what the IMF deal means to the country.

He noted that the bailout has been sold to be some sort of relief for Ghana’s problems, when in fact that may not be the case.

“The government shouldn’t miscommunicate at all and give a wrong impression about what this means. A lot of hope has been banked on how going to the IMF will help us restore macroeconomic stability. Ghana’s economy has structural difficulties with government financing and the economy itself. Unfortunately, with the previous 16 times that we have gone to the IMF, we are not able to build on the stability in a way that we do not return,” he is quoted by citinewsroom.com to have said.

Dr. Asuming said further urged government to ensure that the reception of the support from the fund brings some stability to the economy whiles reducing the heavy reliance on foreign financing.

“This time too, I don’t see talks on how we are going to build on any stability that the deal will bring, so I hope that we turn more attention to that. What should happen after the IMF deal is that we ensure that the economy is not too dependent on foreign financing and the economy is more diversified. So, I hope that we focus more on that than start jubilating that our problems are over,” he said.

Already, Ghana has begun eyeing the international capital market as speculations that the first tranche of the $3 billion financial bailout may be received by Wednesday, May 17, 2023.

The Minister of State in charge of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has stated that the approval of Ghana’s request for a financial bailout from the IMF will open doors for Ghana to re-enter the international capital market.

“We will go back to the market because we will leverage on the IMF deal to balance our financing needs. We have development partners supporting, but a chunk of our inflows will come from the market so with the IMF approval, we are very confident that investor confidence in Ghana will increase. The institutions upgrading us will look favorably to Ghana and then as a result of all these, we could return to market very soon,” he was quoted by citinewsroom.com.

SSD/MA