Finance lecturer Professor Godfred Bokpin of the University of Ghana says for the last three years, government has been overly confident as far as reviving the economy is concerned.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo administration has claimed a certain narrative about the country's economic growth which usually is not the reality.

However, it has always been betrayed by such a posture, he said.

"One of the problems you'll see with this administration in the last three years is that they're overly confident and bent on pushing a certain storyline which doesn't reflect reality.

"Consistently, it betrays them and I think that is not good," he said on the JoySMS.

His comments come on the back of the 2023 Mid-year budget review yesterday in parliament.

Prof. Bokpin is worried about the margin of error he believes the government has committed regarding its initial targets and the revised ones as far as the budget is concerned.

Given that government has all the data available to make informed predictions, the margin of error should give various stakeholders some comfort, he added.

The finance expert explained that government's margin of error as reflected in the budget review, does not help in ensuring policy credibility.

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta who presented the Mid-Year Budget Review stated the country has turned the corner in terms of economic growth.

"This ‘turning the corner’ is underpinned by the investments and sacrifices we have
collectively made during this difficult period since March 2020," he said.

But Prof Bokpin believes it is too soon to make such a pronouncement because government has not achieved much of its target.

According to him, the seeming stability government may be referring to as progress may be caused by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

He argued that it is the case that whenever government secures such a programme, it "operates certain austerity that beyond the programme, we cannot continue.

"Therefore, when we unwind, the stability that the programme guarantees then becomes unsustainable."

The professor advised that government handles with care the stability it is seeing in the economy.