IEA’s John Kwakye Slams Akufo-Addo's Government For Not Learning From the Past: “We Don’t Learn From Mistakes"

• Director of Research at the IEA Dr John Kwakye is not happy about the way the current administration and its predecessors have managed the country's economy
• Dr Kwakye, a respected economist, said the current administration led by Nana Akufo-Addo as well as the past administrations have consistently engaged in fiscal indiscipline
• He made the comments when he presented a paper that discussed issues of constitutional amendment from an economic standpoint on April 18, 2023

One of Ghana’s foremost economists Dr John Kwakye has said the current administration and previous ones have failed to learn valuable lessons from past mistakes in economic management.

Presenting a paper on “Institutionalising Fiscal Discipline and Macroeconomic Stability for Sustained Growth in Ghana: The Constitutional Pathway”, Dr Kwakye said Ghana has a long history of fiscal indiscipline.

He told the audience at the event held on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, that Ghana's fiscal deficit is almost consistently higher than those of its peers in Africa - evidence that the economic decisions over the years have not been sound.

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“Then we borrow to finance the deficits and cause our public debt to escalate to unsustainable levels. We have been in that situation numerous times. Our debt reached the first crisis situation around 2004 when it ballooned to over 100% of GDP," he said.

The Director of Research at IEA, a think tank, also said Ghana's economic situation seems to be where it was almost twenty years ago.

"We do not seem to learn from our mistakes! We hear the two leading parties [NDC and NPP] blaming each other about who has increased the debt the most. It is not about who has decreased the debt the most, as far as the only direction for the debt is upwards,” he was blunt.

Ghana's economic challenges

Ghana is currently in a debilitating debt crisis that threatens to undo years of economic progress.

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Prof Hanke takes Ofori-Atta to the cleaners, wants him to recognise “mismanagement”

Despite being a major cocoa and gold exporter, Ghana is currently battling what some experts have described as the worst financial crisis in decades.

The cost of living has been described by many as unbearable, driven by hyperinflation and a weak local currency, the Ghana cedi.

Three new taxes passed two weeks ago have been described as brutal and insensitive to many suffering citizens.

Professor Hanke slams Ofori-Atta over "mismanagement"

Meanwhile, Professor Steve Hanke, a US-based Applied Economist, has said Ghana's finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta is wrongly blaming international lenders for his inability to secure loan agreements to solve the country's debt crisis.

In a tweet on Tuesday, he said feels the manager of all of Ghana's finances should first recognise the monumental mismanagement under his watch.

Ghana is facing an unprecedented debt crisis under the current Nana Akufo-Add government that experts fear threatens to undo decades of economic progress and development.

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Source: YEN.com.gh