Economist, Professor Godfred Bokpin, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cannot be blamed for the failure of its economic structural policies to impact Ghana’s economy in the long term.

According to him, the failure is as a result of the inability of successive Ghanaian governments to sustain the momentum those IMF programmes put into the economy.

He noted that this is responsible for Ghana’s reliance on IMF programmes to sustain the economy amidst challenges.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition, the Economist noted that should the economy continue to suffer, the government would have no other choice than to run to the IMF for rescue.

“Perhaps the reason why a lot of people wouldn’t say the IMF should be the option because in terms of long term solutions, we haven’t had that in all our programme engagement with the fund.  But I don’t think that we can blame the fund necessarily for that.

“I believe that we’ve made some kind of progress anytime that we’ve been under the IMF. But sustaining that and building on that we have not done well. And that is a reflection of probably our own actions and inactions over the years, and that is why when you look at the data practically every three years and some few months we’ve had to go the IMF,” he said.

Meanwhile the Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah has indicated that the government may soon turn to the IMF for support if the current homegrown programme fails to bring the needed economic stability and restore investor confidence.

This is coming at a time government has been criticised for failing to take the bold step of subscribing to a Fund programme to address the imbalances within the economy.

“If it [bringing the economy back to life] becomes impossible, then it is the only alternative to salvage our economy. But where we are now, we think we are in the position to salvage the economy or to try the homegrown policy we are adopting”.

“If our programmes fail us and we are not able to get the confidence and the results in the fiscal space discipline, which we have to impose on ourselves, then we don’t have a choice”, the Deputy Finance Minister stressed while interacting with George Wiafe on PM Express.