Government should have considered fiscal situation of the country first
COVID-19 a contributing factor to Ghana's woes
A senior research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Dr Said Boakye, has stated that the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) pursued a wrong fiscal strategy after it assumed office in 2017.
In his view, government rushed with the implementation of its flagship programme, Free SHS, hence leading to the accrued debt of the country.
He also attributed the woes of the country to the outbreak of the global pandemic, coronavirus.
Speaking on Asaase Breakfast Show, Dr Said Boakye said in 2018 and 2019, IFS projected that the country would be entangled with difficulties.
But the research institute was hopeful the oil sector was going to bail out government from its economic hardships to some extent.
“…We thought in 2021, 2022 oil production; perhaps even starting from 2020, oil production was going to shoot up, oil revenue was going to go up and government revenue was going to increase to be able to help the government handle some of these fiscal difficulties coming from the perspective of interest payments and amortization. But we entered into 2020 and because of COVID things didn’t go as we thought that recovery was going to come in 2021 and the new oil fields that we have found was going to be produced in 2021 to come to the aid of the government,” he said.
“But you realised that in 2021 oil production went down than before, so the government was not able to raise enough revenue from the oil sector and these have culminated into the situation we are in…it’s not the oil sector alone, this government has pursued what I will call the wrong fiscal strategy from day one,” the senior research fellow at IFS said.
Government, however, has put measures in place to ensure that the economy bounces back to normal.
When the economy is put on the 'right' track, businesses, on the other hand, will fully recover from the shocks of COVID-19.
Senior research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Dr Said Boakye