Economist and Professor of Finance Godfred Bokpin has said Ghana’s economy has struggled to move beyond macroeconomic stability since 1992, despite repeated efforts to restore confidence and sustain economic growth.
According to him, the country has spent the past three decades moving between periods of economic instability and painful recovery processes aimed at restoring confidence in the economy.
Prof Bokpin said successive governments had repeatedly worked to stabilise the economy, only for the country to return to a period of economic difficulty.
He described the cost of restoring economic stability over the years as enormous and increasingly unbearable for the country.
“People of Ghana, since 1992, this economy has not moved beyond macroeconomic stability. We have been struggling with instability, and we go through a painful process to restore macroeconomic stability, only for us to undo that again.
The cost of correcting economic destruction is becoming enormous and unbearable for us and beyond what our tax potential can handle. That tells us why, quite recently, we have had to go beyond the traditional fiscal consolidation based on expenditure restraint and revenue enhancement as a way of restoring macroeconomic stability,” he said at a public lecture organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service on Tuesday, August 11.
“But, colleagues, Ghana has reached a stage where fiscal consolidation alone is no longer enough to restore macroeconomic stability,” he added.
He said Ghana needed to break the cycle of instability and move beyond efforts merely aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability towards achieving sustainable economic development.
Prof. Bokpin was speaking on the topic “The Resetting Agenda for Sustainable Development in Ghana: The Civil Service’s Responsibilities”.