A Professor of Finance and Economics at the University of Ghana has cast a stark verdict on the 2025 Mid-Year Budget, saying it may be statistically sound but offers little hope for jobs or long-term resilience.

Professor Charles Godfred Ackah, speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, questioned the depth and direction of the government’s economic vision.

“The statistics are showing some good performance,” he admitted. “If you measure them in the context of normal, orthodox economics, you will see a reduction or some form of consolidation.

"Fiscal consolidation has been achieved in terms of the primary surplus and inflation trending down, exchange rate stabilising.”

But beneath those numbers, Prof. Ackah sees troubling signals.

“So I think that is good to some extent,” he continued, “but you have to ask yourself, at what cost? What is our vision as a nation? What do we want to achieve?”

He said if the government’s goal was merely to rack up impressive statistics, then credit might be due.

“If it’s just to appear to be achieving some good statistics, then I think we should give congratulations to the managers of the economy.”

But he argued that metrics alone are no substitute for a meaningful transformation of people’s lives.

“If the bottom line, or the vision, is to create jobs, to build a competitive, resilient economy, to improve the welfare of the Ghanaian, to reduce poverty and inequality, then I don’t think this Mid-Year Budget Review gives any excitement.”

According to him, much of the economic performance hailed in the budget is riding on a favourable international environment, not internal policy excellence.

“If you look at what has actually happened, I think it’s mainly resulting from the external sector,” he said.

“Because of the increase in gold production and export of gold, we are getting a lot of external advantage from there in terms of foreign exchange revenue. Also, cocoa is doing well in terms of the price, and the oil price has stabilised.”

He warned that the budget’s apparent gains should not be mistaken for sustainable progress.

“All of these are giving us some windfall to which the managers of the economy could claim advantage and sit, purely as a result of their own doing, as we normally do.”

But history, he pointed out, offers a cautionary tale.

“We have seen this before. If you look at the 2013 budget, 2014 budget, 2015 budget, when President Mahama was still there, we recorded some 2.8% budget surplus.”

Without a deliberate effort to build an economy that can absorb shocks, Prof. Ackah warned, Ghana remains vulnerable.

“If we don’t prefer to build a resilient economy, it is susceptible to shocks. And if the gold prices fall all of a sudden, crude oil price goes above the roof all of a sudden, then we will be back to square one.”