The government’s touted positive macroeconomic indicators must reflect at the micro level to make it meaningful to the ordinary Ghanaian, Professor Godfred, an Economist with the University of Ghana, has said.
He said the low inflation rate, positive exchange rate, high growth and low interest rate as put out by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia at the University of Cape Coast, must help improve the living conditions of the ordinary citizen.
“Macroeconomic stability is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end. So we cannot pursue it as an end, but how do we build on it sustainably over a long period to bring total human development,” he said in an interview with Joy FM, an Accra based radio station yesterday and monitored by the Ghanaian Times.
The Vice President addressing a regional seminar of the Tertiary Students Confederacy of the NPP (TESCON) at Cape Coast over the weekend said the NPP government was better than the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the management of the economy.
According to Dr Bawumia dwelling on the current debt levels to draw a conclusion on the economy was flawed, stressing that prudent debt management was what was important and not the nominal figure.
He explained that while the county’s debt may be witnessing an upward trend, the focus must be on its impact on the growth, inflation, interest rate and exchange rate.
“You hear the NDC saying that the debt levels have gone up, sure the debt level has gone up but economic management has not gone down, if you do not manage your debt levels well, it will affect your exchange rate, growth rate and interest rates and inflation,” he said.
However, Prof. Bokpin thinks the comparison between the current and the previous government was not the best.
He said rather government should consider Ghana’s potential relative to its peers, saying “if we do that we will realise we have not achieve significant progress.”
Prof. Bokpin indicated that the comparison was not a better benchmark in assessing the economy, saying “if the marking scheme is wrong the average will become the outstanding.”
“The NDC had their challenges, the NPP also has it challenges, where we are right now this comparison does not put food on our table,” he said.
He further said comparison between the two parties did not solve the challenges the private sector was facing, even with the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTFA).
“This comparison is not helping us because we are competing with our peers in Africa,” Prof. Bokpin said, adding that the country’s peers were doing better in terms of revenue generation.
He said the comparison neither addressed the challenges the private sector was facing nor providing jobs for the growing university graduates.
“The easiest way to become unemployed is to go to the University because the unemployment rate is higher among the university graduates between 26 and 29,” Prof. Bokpin said.
He said University graduates were searching for non-existent jobs, saying “these are the issues which must engage our attention.”
Prof. Bokpin said government could do better if it was able to reduce corruption, stressing that the most of the revenue leakages being experienced was as a result of corruption.
He said the concern of the government should be initiating measures to promoting inclusive growth, improve revenue generation, reduce the growing debt levels, and improve revenue generation.
Prof. Bokpin said in terms of the macroeconomic performance, the government had done relatively better than the previous government.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
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