He said the economy is so bad that the managers of it have to come up with prudent measures that will solve the problem in the long term.
Speaking on Accra based Starr FM, Seth Terkper said it will take the country 5-years to recover from the economic challenges considering the level of debt this administration has piled down.
“The situation we are in now we have to go back to the early 80s or 70s and I gave you where we were with respect to our debts. To the extent that our budget is dependent on the Central Bank. By the way if there were things done off budget is likely to also include the Bank of Ghana financing which should be a loan to the government.
“It should be a loan and if it is not fully added which is something we have been analyzing quite recently based on the Bank of Ghana’s own balance sheet. Now the Fund is here and of course, it’s a monetary institution and they will look at that balance sheet,” Mr. Terkpe said.
He continued: “The Fund is more for the Central Bank than the Ministry for Finance. So it may be all of those things which have been adjusted now. Which is why we have a law that says that the borrowing should be five percent in the Act.”
But Mr. Terkpe stated the current government came in and changed how the five percent borrowing plan should work within the law.
“It is when we have mastered this that we can win ourselves off the IMF. Which you must do cautiously because you will face a crisis and the rest. So what you have to do is have your own home grown policy and reserve the right to go to the IMF when you have a genuine crisis,” he advised.
Recently, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has called for more collaboration for an economic miracle.
According to the Finance Minister, “the sanctity and the well-functioning of the financial system are sacrosanct” and the country’s economy can only revive with the support and trust of all Ghanaians.
“This is a government that protected the savings of 4.6 million Ghanaian depositors with the reform of the banking and financial sector even in our early days”, he told journalists at a press briefing on Wednesday, 28 September 2022 concerning ongoing negotiations between the government of Ghana and the International Monetary Fund for a $3-billion programme aimed at salvaging the gold-producing West African country’s ailing economy, adding: “We owe it to the economy and Ghanaians to keep protecting it,’’ he said while addressing the media on Wednesday, September 28.
Mr. Ofori-Atta also note that he was hopeful of a ‘miracle’ to restore the economy.
