Joe Jackson, an Economist and Director of Operations at Dalex Finance says claims that Ghana’s economy is faring positively almost a year after being under the bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is fallacious.
Just as he once indicated, Mr. Jackson says the economy is still seeking to recuperate at the intensive care unit.
His comment comes after it was asserted that the economy was doing well after Ghana’s staff-level agreement with the IMF for the release of the second tranche of the US$3billion bailout.
At a joint press conference by the IMF and the Ministry of Finance, the minister, Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, noted Ghana’s meeting of the requirements for the release of the next US$600million was an indication that the economy was bouncing back.
But to Mr. Jackson, Ghanaians don’t have to jubilate over the development since the economy has not neared a recovery.
“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.”
“Last year, we suffered a 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 a 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 said on Accra-based GHONe TV.
He advised against complacency which he said could lead to a relapse in Ghana’s dire economic circumstance.
“This economy needs careful management, this economy is still in intensive care, and you cannot take your eyes off the monitors for a minute. If we do, things could go south very very quickly,” he added.
This is the second time the Finance analyst is passing such a comment after sharing a similar sentiment in August this year when the Finance minister made a comparable comment.
Rather than lying to Ghanaians, Mr. Jackson asked the Finance minister, to tell Ghanaians the truth about the economy when he presented the Mid-year Budget review in Parliament and claimed the economy was on the path of recovery.
According to Mr. Jackson, Ghana’s economy was still in a critical stage which needed to be looked at.
In Parliament Monday, July 31, 2023, the Finance minister noted the excruciating challenges Ghana underwent from 2022 was being turned around due to government’s policies and programmes that were yielding positive results.
He Monday told Parliament that, “Mr. Speaker, we have turned the corner and, more importantly, we are determined to continue down that path. Soon, we expect the measures taken to result in economic activity greater than anything experienced in the history of the Fourth Republic. Our plans and programmes should soon lead to a sustained increase in domestic production, including manufacturing and farming, replacing many of the products that we are used to importing.”
However, the shortfalls in revenue generation, increasing public debt, and lack of substantial economic growth are some of the challenges the finance analyst thinks can hamper Ghana’s meaningful development.
“I will say that we have turned the corner when we have moved to the recovery ward but at this moment this economy is still in the ICU and I think it is a disservice to the people of this country to say that we have turned the corner,” he said.
For a sustainable financial management, Mr. Jackson advised the government to cut down on unnecessary expenditure, slice the size of government, prioritise essential sectors of the economy and streamline bureaucratic structures to avert the fiscal deficit.
READ ALSO: This economy still in the ICU, Ofori-Atta’s recovery comment a disservice to Ghanaians – Joe Jackson
