Financial Analyst, Professor Lord Mensah, says Ghana needs external pressure to be able to manage the economy soundly.
He explained Ghana cannot keep using the strategy of recycling to save the economy. “At this point, only an external inflow can save the economy.”
“For so many instances we have received signals that without external pressures we cannot manage our economy. It’s been 65 years after independence and we’ve been to the IMF like 16 times. On the average, this shows we go to the IMF every 4 years. The IMF comes into picture to instill discipline and it means you cannot manage your economy,” he told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show.
The Akufo-Addo administration is not considering an IMF bailout for Ghana, despite acknowledging the dire economic situation the country finds itself in. Many, particularly the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has urged the government to “swallow its pride” and return to the IMF for help.
The government has, however, insisted on fashioning out and applying home-grown solutions to the country’s economic challenges.
In the interview, Professor Lord Mensah noted “Our history shows that we always do better economically when we go to the IMF. We do better with an ideal budget deficit of 5 percent and that was helping us. We need external pressure to manage our economy and that’s going to the IMF.”
According to him, going to the IMF will see government focus on areas it has chosen to ignore. “When we go the IMF, they will tell gov’t to reduce the number of ministers, cut down on some key expenditure, they will tell gov’t to suspend some social intervention policies.”
He advised the ruling government to swallow its pride and go to the IMF for a bailout. “The gov’t shouldn’t allow politics influence its decisions,” he noted.
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