E-Levy Is Senseless Response To Inflation …EU advisory group member

A member of the European Union Reporting Advisory Group, Dr. Jerry Kombat Monfant, has warned that current global inflation is likely to throw Ghana’s economy out of gear and catch the Akufo-Addo government pants-down.

In a write-up, he contrasts Ghana to countries including the US and Poland who have taken pragmatic measures to weather the problem saying the Ghana government is totally unprepared for the looming danger and in its confusion, is pushing the e-levy as a solution through the levy would rather worsen matters for households.

“E- levy, which is also billed to cut household incomes to a proportion are all part of the bizarre economic narrative which does not make sense to an economist. It’s clear living conditions could get even more worse, as the country might likely embrace debt default according to our scorecard scenario. This has the potential of raising social tensions,” Dr. Monfant wrote.

Saying all countries in the world are facing global inflation, the renowned Economist said Ghana is among the countries in the world least prepared for the coming impact.

In Africa, Ghana is behind countries like Nigeria, in terms of preparedness and demonstrated savvy to handle the impact of global inflation.

“Our research indicates that Ghana is not amongst well prepared Central Banks to take the hit on inflation as compared to Nigeria,” he wrote

He points out that the lack of preparation is in spite of the fact that Ghana’s economic profile for the last three months “leaves more to be desired.”

Ghana, he pointed out, joined 13 worse economic performing countries in the World in November 2021. The country ranks fourth with a distressed Sovereign US Debt behind Argentina, Venezuela, and Lebanon.

Ghana also ranks third as a worse performing emerging markets hard currency Sovereign Bonds and Ghana is the 5th worse-performing emerging economy in the World.

“Meanwhile the government of Ghana is absolutely clueless about establishing good economic models to forestall the looming economic dangers,” he wrote.

Dr. Monfant pointed out that already, household incomes have been stretched thin as 41 percent of the average Ghanaian household income is used for food consumption alone.

The respected economist also points out that the government has not been truthful with Ghanaians in regards to some of its policies, including the Planting for Food and Jobs.

“In 2019, Ghana imported US $2bn of agricultural and related products across the World, while the citizens were made to believe that the government policy of planting for food and jobs was making headway,” he pointed out.

“With the current Global stance, we anticipate 50 percent of an average household income to be used on food consumption alone, as the economy would be importing external inflation into the country through its agricultural import.”