Despite the numerous confirmations that Ghana’s economy is back on track after the gains made were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, an economist at the University of Ghana Professor Agyapomaa, Gyeke-Dako has raised concerns about the persisting fragile foundation.
Although the mess created forced the government to seek the current IMF bailout program, the Bretton Woods i
institution in its latest third staff-level review confirmed that the economy is indeed on the path of recovery.
Government, through the Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has indicated that comparing the current economic growth trends to the pre-COVID-19 levels shows that the economy is even booming faster than anticipated.
“I believe our economy’s end-year growth will be more the end-year growth of 2019 or even 2020. The economy is back and it is back stronger,” the Minister of Finance has said.
Although Prof. Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako also admits that the economy is on the path of recovery, the recovery lacks the needed resilience.
Speaking at the 2nd Quarterly Economic Roundtable at the University of Ghana the Economist acknowledged that although gains have been made in the stabilisation of some macroeconomic indicators, she noted that their current states are not good enough.
She mentioned that inflation, policy rate, and exchange rate are stabilizing but they do not address the deeper structural issues within the economy.
Prof. Gyeke-Darko warned that without substantial reforms, Ghana’s current economic trajectory might be unsustainable calling for long-term strategies to address persistent challenges such as high unemployment, rising living costs, and low productivity.
“We recognize that Ghana is on the road to recovery but we haven’t yet built the resilience that we need to be building as a country. We have seen the exchange rate relatively stable, but not where we expect it to be. We have seen inflation come down over the past months. We have seen the monetary policy rate also coming down, we think we can do more,” Prof. Gyeke-Dako contended.
She added, “We need to look beyond what is happening now and find measures that will put the economy on a sustainable path.”
