Implement right measures to sustain economic gains

A Ghanaian economist, Samuel Apea, has said urged the government to implement the right measures to sustain the positive successes arising from its economic policies last year.

Apea, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana and a Senior Fellow of a Ghanaian think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), mentioned the stability of the cedi, decline in inflation and interest rates and stability of the macro-economic environment as indicative of some of the achievements.

"However, the next budget will determine if government will outline measures required to sustain economic gains made so far," he said. Apea said factors behind the figures recorded this year were the result of a lot of restraint on the part of government and sacrifices by the populace.

"Government on one hand minimised expenditure and deferred implementation of development projects at the expense of the populace some of who faced a certain level of retrenchment and denial of salary increases."

Apea said government should consider these as short term measures and pursue sustained policies in the medium to long term period so that what had been achieved would not be blown off by agitation and external shocks.

"This will increase the gains and make the national cake bigger for all to share," he added.

The national economic indicators at the beginning of the year when the New Patriotic Party government took over were: Inflation - 40.5 percent; Interest rates - 46 percent; Exchange rate - One dollar = 6,794 cedis; One Pound = 10,199 cedis while the total national debt stood at 5.9 billion dollars (41 trillion cedis)

Currently, inflation stands at 28.3 percent while the cedi has stabilised against major currencies with the dollar trading at 7,141 cedis and the pound at 10,351 cedis.

Government has subscribed to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative to address the nation's indebtedness.

Apea, currently the Chairman of ECOBANK Development Corporation, said government could consolidate the gains made by encouraging small companies to merge and the large ones could also enter into joint partnership with foreign companies.

"What we have now is the compartmentalised sort of situation where the small companies are not growing out of their shells to join the bigger ones," he said, and cited agriculture, industry, services, such as the hospitality as some of the areas that required improvement.

He said projections could not be made on the international front due to recession in major economies, which were trading partners mainly because of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Apea advised Ghanaian businessmen to take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) adopted by the US government, which, he said, would benefit the private sector and the nation as a whole.

He called on businessmen to stop operating behind walls and the selling of head loads of products to form mergers of about six or more companies working in pavilions to export products.

These, he said, were some of the things that foreign businessmen looked out for.

He urged the formal sector to put party affiliation aside and assist genuine businessmen to generate employment.