The Government will maintain a great fiscal discipline after exiting the IMF programme.
That’s the promise by the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during an interaction with members of the Ghanaian community resident in Valletta, Malta, as part of his official visit to that country.
According to him, the country has learnt a great lesson from the 16th IMF programme, entered into by the erstwhile Mahama administration and the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.
The country entered into a three year IMF bailout programme after the cedi depreciated and economy was in disarray.
Healthy Economy
The fund has now given the country successful ratings with a clean bill of economic health.
Fiscal deficit which was hovering around 7.3% at the end of 2016, has been brought down to under 3.9%. Inflation was also around 15% but is now within the single digit regime.
“It is about a fundamental and basic matter all of us as Ghanaians have to bear in mind, and that is discipline in the management of our public finances. It’s not easy to say that you have to live within your means but if you want to be able to do big things, you don’t spend money that you don’t have, that is always the road to chaos,” the president said.
“We have to learn that discipline in the management of our public finances has now to be the basic element for the building of our economy, and that’s the lesson that the latest bailout program from the IMF should impress upon all of us,” he continued.
“It is my intention that we keep it there. We keep it there because it is the signal to investors, it is the signal to those who look at the fundamentals of your economy, that the basic elements of that economy are in a good state,” he added.
Investor Confidence
Malta
The efforts of his government at managing the economy, the President said, has meant that “we are attracting companies like Volkswagen and Nissan, Synotruck, Renault, Suzuki. All of these are taking a big interest in Ghana. The tech giant, Google, is taking steps to start establishing an artificial intelligence centre in Ghana. All of this is because they consent that there’s a discipline and systemic management in our national economy and its public finances.”
Fiscal discipline, according to President Akufo-Addo, has to be Ghana’s credo going forward, adding that “if we are able to project that discipline, the benefits to us are going to be very rapid and very dramatic, and that transformation of our national economic structure, which all of us are waiting for, will be very soon around the corner.”
With Ghana projected to be one of the fastest growing economies in Africa this year, President Akufo-Addo stated that “we have to stay that way and stay focused on the programme, and on the way that we have taken things. I am trying to project the reality which is there’s a lot of hope for our country.”
To the “professional Jeremiahs” whose only interest is to rundown the nation, the President stated that “I am not daunted. I don’t really pay too much attention to what they say. I know what I am doing, and I believe what I am doing has the support of our people.”
