Senior Economist, Dr. Patrick Assuming, has intimated that the measures government put in place to improve the economy and mitigate the current economic situation, especially with inflation, hasn’t worked out.

Speaking about the concerns with regards to the inflation rate and the current economic challenges being faced, Dr. Assuming averred that more has to be done.

“Regardless of how we are feeling, the overwhelming feeling is that the measures that government put in place since March has not worked the way it should.”
Dr. Patrick Assuming

According to the Senior Economist, government has to do an assessment of the measures and be more systematic about it. He stated that government should understand what has worked and why most of them haven’t worked out as well.

“It is obviously very important. There were a variety of measures. Some of them were medium term in nature so we have not really seen the impact yet.
Dr. Patrick Assuming

Dr. Assuming stated that government deciding to evaluate what it is doing and the measures it has put in place, is important and a good thing.

Touching on the proposals which has been suggested to government on how it can mitigate the current hardship and the inflation, Dr. Assuming indicated that the problem has to be checked from where it started.

“You can see the logic in that if you are concerned about fighting the inflation. I mean from where I sit, you have to fight the inflation from the root cause.”
Dr. Patrick Assuming

According to the Senior Economist, the main solution is not to subsidize the sale of staples. He stated that the surest way of reducing prices is to produce more than enough and not to subsidize as being suggested.

“Now, in the interim, we cannot produce more grains because it goes through a cycle. So, we might decide that we are going to subsidize the price. But when we do that, we might end up raising demand and we also have to think about the extent to which government can afford to take on this additional bill.”
Dr. Patrick Assuming

Medium to long term plan needed

Dr. Assuming intimated that a medium to long term plan is needed where the nation will plant well this year, so that there will be enough grains so government wouldn’t have to think about subsidizing it.

Commenting on the calls for government to work on the fuel prices to mitigate the impact it’s having, Dr. Assuming averred that he doesn’t think the nation can go back to subsidizing fuel. He explained that the nation has made a decision to deregulate, and there is a reason for that.

“You can make a case at this point where the prices are so high, maybe it might make sense for government to remove some of the taxes temporarily until a point where the prices have come down a little bit.”
Dr. Patrick Assuming

Touching on which part of the measures government should focus on when assessing, Dr. Assuming stated that he can’t specifically point out since details of the measures haven’t really been made clear to the nation.

“I think the measures were not addressed to fix the main problems of the Ghanaian economy. So we wait and see what they come up with.”
Dr. Patrick Assuming