An Economist, Dr. Ismael Yamsom, has urged government to exercise caution in its spending, as merely obtaining a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may not fully address the crisis it was intended to resolve.
According to Dr. Yamsom, Ghana’s major challenge lies in its expenditures consistently exceeding its revenue, leading to financial difficulties.
He emphasized that the government needs to take intentional measures during the mid-year budget review to demonstrate its commitment to reducing expenses.
Dr. Yamsom expressed his opinion that the IMF should offer support in alignment with the government’s plans rather than imposing solutions and providing excessive assistance.
“That’s why the fund is clever to say this programme is the authority’s programme and we are supporting it. So the IMF programme should only be a support to what our government should do and must do. And for me what is the problem?
“The problem has always been that we spend more than we raise in revenue. So let the government demonstrate in its budget on Monday that truly it is going to take steps, clear steps, credible steps, that it will cut expenditure and that it can be quantifiable, verifiable, and that we can all track it.
“Because if we maintain the same expenditure levels then the IMF programme can go sleep. Because you’ll give me one billion a year, how much debt and interest is government paying every year?” he was quoted by myjoyonline.com.