The acting Head of Markets of Absa Bank, Jacob Brobbey, says Ghana can do more to strengthen its economy and make it more attractive to investors.
He said Ghana’s economy is doing well compared to other countries on the continent, especially amidst major challenges such as COVID-19 that hit the country in 2020.
According to him, some of the major challenges affecting the economy are inflationary pressures.
“If you look at the macroeconomic side, there are challenges, but if you look at Ghana, it is one of the few countries that were able to avoid a recession during the COVID period. Ghana isn’t doing badly… With the challenges, I think the Central Bank Governor and the Finance Minister have been talking about [how to address them]… [These are] Issues of revenue mobilization, whether or not our debt is sustainable, the high-interest cost and others. These are known, and I believe the economic managers of the country are keeping their eyes on this to ensure that we resolve these issues,” he said.
Jacob Brobbey added that the government should intensify its fiscal policies to effectively tackle rising inflation.
He said Bank of Ghana’s monetary policy efforts are commendable, but must be complemented by fiscal policies from the finance ministry.
“The challenges are largely global. Inflation and cost of living crisis, for instance, are global, but there is a need for the fiscal side to come in a bit stronger. I think for the monetary policy side, the governor has done a lot of things but in terms of the fiscal side, in addition to what the Ministry [of Finance] is already doing, especially cutting expenditure by 30%, there are more things we need to do to ensure that we reign in the challenges that we have in the macro space,” he added.
