Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong, is casting doubt on the Finance Minister’s statement that the economy has turned the counter.
According to him, the micro-economy is still going through challenges despite relative stability on the macroeconomic front.
Speaking on the AM Show on Joy News, Dr. Acheampong said the country has a long way to go in terms of economic recovery.
“When the Finance Minister [Ken Ofori-Atta] talks about the robust economy, often my reaction is what is the definition of robust, is it just macroeconomic indicators or numbers like inflation and policy rate and things like that, or it actually goes beyond to look at things in the real economy – employment, income, wages, cost of doing business and the high tax environment – that we have all been complaining about.”
“If you look at it with a much wider lens, the issue of robust becomes ‘soft spend’ because I don’t see how we’re going to be talking robust with only 10 to 11 months to the election”, he pointed out.
He argued that cost of living and cost of borrowing were still high, whilst the real economy is not doing well.
“If you look at it purely from just the narrow macroeconomic numbers you can make an argument for robust. But if you expand it and look at the real economy, cost of living and borrowing, I don’t see how that is going to be the case”.
He added that it will take at least 3 years for things to turn around properly.
He continued that most government agencies and departments will be embarking on campaigns by middle of the year, to win the sympathy of the electorates, and therefore little work will be done.
“Remember that most times [election years], by the time we get to half a year, most of these government agencies and some of the bosses are all out there campaigning; and there’s not much work done. So I struggle to accept the robust narrative which is being painted”.
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