Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong says the economic indicators do not align with the Finance Minister’s optimistic ‘we have turned the corner’ statement.

According to him, the frame of reference used by Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta to emphasis that the economic recoveries that have been experienced in the past few months are as a result of the recent IMF bailout cannot be used to give an accurate analysis.

Dr. Acheampong stated on Newsfile that, “We are still in the corner, we haven’t fully turned yet… you have to do a holistic analysis using the entire budget number of 2023 as a frame of reference. And if you use that as the frame of reference, it is difficult to sustain the argument that we have turned the corner, because the indicators show very clearly that we have made major adjustments and cuts to a lot of these numbers.”

He pointed out that the current state of inflation has vastly exceeded the target that was set in the original policy.

Again, the economist added that the cedi depreciation recorded from the beginning of the year to date which was about 23%, was a strong signal that there were still some economic challenges.

Although he admitted that there has been some positives as seen in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the primary balance, Dr. Acheampong maintained that Ghana still has a long way to go to be able to attain economic stability.

Background

The Finance Minister presented the Mid-year budget review to Parliament on Monday, July 31, where he shared optimism that Ghana is presently experiencing some progress in its economic stability.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said during his presentation that indications after the bailout and the ongoing implementation of the Post-COVID-19 Programme of Economic Growth (PC-PEG) attested that "we have turned the corner," emphasising that government is determined to continue down that path.