Hold a national forum on economy – Austin Gamey tells govt

A Labour Consultant, Mr Austin Gamey has asked the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to organize a national dialogue on the challenges facing the economy just as Former President John Dramani Mahama did with the Senchi Forum.

Such a forum, he said, should be devoid of blame-game and rather open up for extreme, frank conversations about the economy and what can be done to minimize the troubles.

Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show with Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Wednesday October 19, he indicated that the country is in serious economic problems which require all stakeholders to come on board to address.

“Clearly, at this point in time, it is not just the normal meeting but it is abut going to a national tripartite committee.

“Talking about the importance of the national economy as it affects working people in the country, it is not only public sector workers but all working people are suffering. I think that it is important that they go to that meeting and let every card be faced up.

“Just like it happened in Ho during the time of the former President Mahama, culminating into Senchi, I think it is very important that we open up space for a good conversation about what is happening in the economy.

“Let us not immediately be troubled about who did what and who did not do what, let us get to the meeting and have extreme frank meeting.”

In his view, it doesn’t appear that there is going to be any reprieve next year.

To that end, he has asked all to continue to tighten their belts.

Addressing a press conference in Washington DC, United States of America, he said “The general consensus across all the meetings I have attended is that we certainly are in the midst of global crisis. There is a saying that nowhere cool.

“I think coming here today, this week and the past week has really confirmed that we are not the only ones who have been going through very challenging times. Whichever country you engage the Ministers, whether being the West or in Africa or in Asia, their problems are similar – high inflationary pressures, currency depreciation, food insecurity, rising youth unemployment. It has really brought to the fore the fact that we need some unique solutions for these unique set of problems across board.

“There is also still quite a lot of uncertainty about the Russia-Ukrainian war and how it is going to end. It certainly seems that the understanding is that it is going to go into 2023, there seems to be the perception that 2023 is going to be tougher than 2022. If you look all at the forecasts you can see revisions have been made. These revisions have all been downwards, not upwards.

“The only thing that it may seem to have tapered off in the forecasts is, maybe, inflationary pressures but that of course will be based on the fact that this year has been so high, coming of a high base , it is unlikely that we will see the same high levels going into next year. Crude oil forecasts still seem to be in the high, double digits to triple digits.

“So essentially, from my impressions from meetings I have attended so far, it doesn’t look like there is going to be any reprieve next year and so we need to continue to tighten our belts and look at some serious fiscal consolidations in the budget for 2023.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said growth in sub-Saharan Africa will slow sharply to 3.6% in 2022 and remain low at 3.7% in 2023.

The Fund further indicated that financial stability risks have increased amid the highest inflation in decades and the ongoing spillovers from Russia’s war in Ukraine to European and global energy markets.

Amid poor market liquidity, there is a risk that a sudden, disorderly tightening in financial conditions may interact with preexisting vulnerabilities.

In emerging markets, rising rates, weak fundamentals, and large outflows have pushed up borrowing costs, particularly for frontier economies, with a heightened risk of additional defaults.

In China, the property downturn has deepened as sharp declines in home sales have exacerbated pressures on developers, with heightened risks of spillovers to the financial sector.