Government must not take the credit for recent upgrade – Prof. Bokpin

An Economist, Prof. Godfred Bokpin, has asked the government to be circumspect in taking credit for the slight recovery currently being witnessed in the economy.

According to him, Ghanaians who had to take haircuts on their investments made sacrifices that the government must not take credit for.

This was in reaction to the country’s recent upgrade by Fitch ratings agency.

“The recovery we are seeing, we can trace to a haircut that people have gone through so people have sacrificed so much for Ghana to have this kind of recovery. We have to be measured in how we take credit,” he was quoted by 3news.com.

Prof. Bokpin lamented the extent to which individuals have had to let go of their investment to create the fiscal space the government is currently enjoying.

He urged the government to, instead of taking credit, sympathise with those who have contributed to the success.

“Remember, the fiscal space that we have created through the domestic debt exchange alone is almost a 61billion Cedis, that fiscal space that the Government is celebrating represents pains, cost and losses on the books of households, individuals, banks, and nonbank financial institutions.

“That is the price people have paid not the government. The government didn’t pay a price because of the fiscal adjustment, the government did not do the needful. So if any politician wants to take credit for the recovery we are seeing let us look at the data and let us be humble, let us sympathize with the pain that Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians are going through in order for Ghana to have a fresh start,” he said.

The Economist, therefore, questioned the government’s fiscal consolidation plans and how it intends to drive the fiscal space.

“We have a fiscal space of more than 60 million Cedis, the question is, how are we going to use this fiscal space to ensure development that is sustainable, inclusive, broad-base? We should be interested in how the 2024 budget is going to look like,” he asked.

SSD/NOQ

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