The Akufo-Addo government has hinted that it may soon go to the IMF for a bailout.
The telling concession by the regime that kept on a cognitive dissonance about the collapsed Ghanaian economy had earlier vowed never to cry to the IMF again after completing Ghana’s last program with the IMF.
However, the recent announcement by Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah shows the government has gone back to its vomit in relation to the Bretton Woods Institution.
“If it [bringing the economy back to life] becomes impossible, then it is the only alternative to salvage our economy. But where we are now, we think we are in the position to salvage the economy or to try the homegrown policy we are adopting,” he said.
“If our programmes fail us and we are not able to get the confidence and the results in the fiscal space discipline, which we have to impose on ourselves, then we don’t have a choice”, the Deputy Finance Minister told Joy news.
According to the Bolga Central MP, Isaac Adongo, through Eurobonds alone, the Akufo-Addo government has borrowed a whopping US$12billion, minus interest payments. The time to repay the loans is maturing in the next few months and the government is broke.
Consequently, people at the Finance Ministry are refusing to pick up phone calls from investors.
The debt conundrum from reckless borrowing has led to investors refusing to lend the country more money due to a lack of trust that Ghana can pay back.
The resultant shortage in foreign exchange has led to inflation shooting up to over 45% according to believable experts of global repute even though the government is claiming it is only over 23%.
The local currency has also taken a hit, being at the moment the worst performing currency in the world.
For a very long time, experts have been urging the government to go to the IMF for a program but it has been refusing.
John Kumah asked that the economy and going to IMF be not politicized.
“It is not about politics when it comes to the economy. But for COVID-19, there is no way we should be discussing IMF by this time”, he explained, adding: “When President Akufo Addo picked this economy and started growing it with an average of 7%, we saw how the economy was doing so well”, he explained.