Former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, is advising government to be transparent and candid with the current state of the economy so that it is not taken by surprise of the International Monetary Fund Article IV Consultation paper, which discussions is presently ongoing and expected to be completed soon.

According to him, the Article IV Consultation requires the country to open its books for economic assessment by the Bretton Wood, whether it is pursuing a programme or not.

“We have to come up with a credible package because my understanding is that there’s Article IV discussion that is going on to the extent that Ghana is obliged to open the books, whether you have a programme or not. We maybe in but if we do not come up with a credible policy, we may be in for yet another surprise”, Mr. Terkper told Joy Business.

To him, that is the way to go.

“They [World Bank, IMF] will be diplomatic sometimes because they are talking. But when you interview GRA (Ghana Revenue Authority) officials and you put a question to them, can you meet the target [revenue], they say well there’s a talk on that, but we would work at it”, he added.

“They [GRA officials] are telling you that it won’t be easy. And that goes to say the revenue target for 2022 which many people think it’s ambitious and you still have a problem with major sources of the revenue”. he further mentioned

Mr. Terkper also said the Bretton Wood institutions are watching closely the kind of programme government will introduce to address the challenges within the economy, a move that will signal positive or negative reaction by the financial markets.

“Still the markets [financial] are not convinced. Government will be announcing measures, but there are investors that talk to others – they are not convinced that we don’t have a policy – and that truth should come out in a more transparent and candid and credible way, so we can get support which Ghana has always enjoyed to resolve the problem and the crisis.”

Ghana’s economy has come under scrutiny in recent times as the World Bank Country Director, Pierre Laporte at a recent forum said the challenges within the fiscal economy existed even before the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic.