Former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, is advising the government to exercise caution when it comes to celebrating the accomplishment of the first phase of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme.

Terkper has emphasized that despite progress, significant economic challenges still persist, including elevated levels of inflation and interest rates. Consequently, he believes that the government should refrain from lauding the narrowing of the primary balance as it falls short of the IMF's intended targets.

In his discussion with Joy Business, Mr. Terkper emphasized the importance of the government not becoming complacent but rather continuing to put in efforts to rejuvenate the economy, with a particular focus on ensuring the sustainability of the country's debt.

“If you consider when [inflation] it cross 40% that is another three fold, and you looking at debt at 57% of Gross Domestic Product, now closely to 100%. Even when you take out the contingent liabilities and others, if we are in the 90% right from 57% of GDP that is doubling of the debt to GDP ratio. I granted an interview and wrote a short article which said that we should not be made complacent by those who are in the position to know were Ghana’s economy is in at the moment”.

“I think it is particularly after the debacle of the BoG [Bank of Ghana] showing the extent to which the deficit [fiscal] was monetize, the economy was monetize which is the course of the inflation that we talking about. I think it is a bit too early especially for our friends from the international community to be singing our praises”, he added.

The former Finance Minister elaborated that while there is evidence of economic recovery, potential risks to the economic outlook still exist.

“I am not saying there hasn’t been any success so far in terms of the injection of foreign exchange by the multilateral institutions in particular into the economy to try and stabilise the situation, particularly significant flows of COVID-19 funds. During the COVID-19 period, about ¢60 billion which is six times what we have always use to turn around the economy was injected into the economy”.

“Remember no government has done a turnaround of the economy using more than $1 billion”, he added.