Former Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, has questioned why the government is still insisting on maintaining flagship policies despite seeking the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.
“The government’s mid-year budget review is emphatic the flagship policies will not be reviewed because the current administration is not prepared to emulate the previous government when the country was in a similar situation in the past,” he said.
Mr Terkper explained that the expenditure was driving the deficit hence the flagship policies and other programmes should not stay intact due to consequences on the economy and questioned why the government would continue flagship policies when the economy was on a chopping board.
He noted that when crude oil prices were falling the previous government announced it was not going to construct all the 200 E-blocks hence the current government should tackle the expenditure aspect of the economy to reduce significant arrears in the system.
“Government should arrange that at least within three years clear arrears and tackle expenditure then venture into revenue and strategise to also tackle the external sector,” Mr Terkper contended.
The government has, however, put in place certain measures to improve the economy with the Bank of Ghana increasing the policy rate by 2.5 per cent and other measures such as increasing the cap-reserves ratio to 12 per cent and the increase in recent conservation buffer to 3 per cent and also increasing the capital adequacy ratio to 13 per cent.
Despite all these measures, there is no significant improvement in the economy and it looks like issues might even get worse for the country.
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