A former President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), James Asare Adjei, is advocating for a more practical "problem-solving budget" and economic policy for next year.

According to him, the time has come for a budget that can spur the growth of businesses that will create adequate jobs and ultimately add true value to the economy.

The former AGI President and Chief Executive of the Asadtek Group was speaking at the launch of the 2022 State of the Ghanaian Economy Report by the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER).

He also called for prudent policies that will stabilise the economy at all times and help businesses to plan for long.

“We need an economic policy that will help address the challenges of the business community because we face a big challenge. Government need to find innovative ways to propel economic growth.”

“We as businesses are more concerned about the stability of the business environment where we can plan our operations for the next six months or even a year; then we can achieve something. Besides that, access to cheaper capital is very critical because without such support we can’t grow and expand to create jobs for the teaming youth”, he added.

Ghana’s economy is expected to slow down this year as a result of the impact of the International Monetary Fund-support programme.

Whilst the World Bank is predicting a growth rate of about 1.6% for 2023, the IMF is forecasting a GDP growth of 1.5%.