Economist, and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), Dr. John Kwakye has bemoaned Ghana’s continuous dependence on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for directions on fiscal consolidation and revenue generation.
His comments follow a call by the IMF for Ghana to immediately legislate new measures to boost revenues by at least 0.5 percent of GDP, and also limit its next Eurobond for budget support to only $500 million dollars.
Speaking to Citi Business News, Dr. Kwakye stated that after 61 years of independence, Ghana should be able to discipline itself to avoid going to the IMF for support.
“When you have a program with the IMF they limit you as to how much commercial borrowing you can do. Once you go for their program you have to obey their conditions”.
Dr. Kwakye went on to describe going to the International Monetary Fund as needless.
“Why do you have to go to the IMF ?. It’s because you are messing up on your own. You can’t discipline yourself so you need an external anchor to impose the discipline on you. The IMF ends up asking you not to spend to certain levels, not to employ certain numbers.”
He stated that some sacrifices would need to be made in order not to return to the IMF.
“A lot of our peers who we started with like Malaysia and the rest graduated from the IMF about twenty years ago but we are still going back to them. It will be painful to avoid going back to the IMF, but with discipline we can do it.”
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By: Bobbie Osei/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana