Ghana’s economy is not in deep crisis as claimed by President John Dramani Mahama during the State of the Nation’s Address; this is the firm assertion of an economist, Dr. Daniel Amateye Anim.
The economist is of the firm opinion that President Mahama exaggerated on such claims, which do not reflect the real situation on the grounds.
The President, during his address to parliament, painted a grim and a gloomy picture of the economy. He says the mess he has inherited is overwhelming and was never anticipated.
“The state of our economy is not good. Our economy is in crisis and our people are suffering unprecedented hardships. Our economy is in dire straits, and that is putting it mildly,” the president said.
But Dr. Daniel Anim says this assertion of the President cannot be right. Speaking in an interview with The High Street Journal, he said Ghana’s economy can be best described as on the path of recovery and not in crisis.
He explains that the trajectory of the economy in recent years does not support the exaggerated characterization of an economy in tatters and in crisis.
The economist cannot fathom why an economy which is making significant progress is described as an economy in crisis. He argued that important macroeconomic indicators such as inflation, growth, reserves, among others, have recorded significant progress in the last years, signifying a rebounding economy or a recovering economy.
“Where I would disagree with His Excellency respectfully, has to do with how he described that the economy is in crisis. By my respective view, professionally, the economy is not in crisis,” he opposed the president.
Dr. Anim points out an inherent contradiction in the President’s message. On one hand, Mahama claims the economy is in crisis, but on the other, he outlines ambitious policies for rapid transformation. If the economy were truly in crisis, he argues, it would be nearly impossible to roll out such expansive programs in the short term.
“If the economy is in that crisis, in almost every phase of the economy, then what it means is that you will not be able to do whatever programmes that you want to do in the next two, three years. So if you combine the two, one side is that the economy is in crisis, the other side, you are going to implement a lot of programmes, then how are you going to raise the resources to be able to speedily, you know, bring about the transformation,” he told The High Street Journal.
“With the greatest of respect, I think that’s an exaggeration,” Dr. Daniel Anim asserted.
Although the President in his speech further outlined some bold strategies to revamp the economy, the economist believes such rhetoric must align with the economic realities on the ground.
