Ghana not in a full-blown economic crisis yet - Bright Simons

Honorary Vice President of think tank Imani Centre for Policy and Education (Imani Africa) Bright Simons has asserted that though Ghana's economy faces a serious fiscal crisis, the economy is not in a full-blown economic crisis.

Mr Simons, revered for his expertise in economic matters, argued that there is no evidence of the country being in a complete economic crisis, stressing that government can still turn the situation around.

“We are not yet at the level where we have a full-blown economic crisis. But we can get there. A full-blown economic crisis, literally, as you said, we’d have been like Sri Lanka where you have people not been paid; shops running out of goods; and riots in the streets. Then you get a national security crisis where the President literally runs away from the Jubilee House."

He added, "We’re not there. Objectively and evidently we are not there yet. So we have a lot of room still left. And there is also still a lot of legitimacy left of this Government,” he said on Joy FM’s Newsfile Saturday, January 21, 2022.

The Government in order to get an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to help it deal with the balance of payments difficulties is engaged in a debt restructuring programme since it’s unable to meet its debt obligations.

This programme, which includes a domestic debt exchange programme, has been met with rejections from individual bondholders who have demanded direct engagement with government.