Heed ISSER advice for economic stability

 The advice from the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the Univer­sity of Ghana to the government to keep to its good expenditure control to avoid overspending as the country gears towards the 2024 general election is a good one.

The ISSER is said to have been established in 1962 to conduct re­search into socio-economic issues to promote the development of the country.

That is to say it is an expert in­stitution whose commendations, recommendations or suggestions and other pronouncements must not be disregarded or treated with triviality.

This is because such pro­nouncements are based on facts and figures verified through research.

In the face of this, The Ghana­ian Times upholds ISSER’s com­mendation of the government for its fiscal discipline since it signed on to the Extended Credit Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In other words, the ISSER is saying that the government has been checking its spending since its agreement with the IMF for a three-year $3billion Extended Credit Facility to support the country’s post-COVID economic recovery programme.

This means the government has what it takes to rein in profligate spending, and if this is really the case, then the ISSER admonition not to overspend should not be anything difficult for the government to do.

However, there is the need for all institutions, public and private or local and foreign, to prompt the government to put breaks on overspending when found to be doing so and make such prompt­ings public for members of the public also to be in the know.

This is very important because it is common knowledge that the government tries to undertake certain unbudgeted-for projects in certain places to induce the beneficiary communities to vote for the ruling political party.

That penchant has been exhibited by both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which have been offered turns by the electorate to rule the country in its fourth republic dispensation birthed in January 1993.

It would be recalled that in an interview on an Accra-based radio on March 18, this year, the Managing Director of IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, pointed to a combination of factors for Ghana’s economic challenges, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and im­prudent fiscal behaviour during the 2020 election period.

The challenges associated with COVID-19 could be tolerated because the pandemic came as an unexpected natural occurrence that must be fought head-on, but what about the imprudent fiscal behaviour?

Georgieva stressed the im­portance of learning from past experiences and applying those lessons to policy-making relating to the need for a robust macro­economic and financial gover­nance in navigating economic uncertainties.

If nothing at all, the ISSER admonition dovetails into what Georgieva has already said, which is a proof that if the government defies prudent spending and runs a budget deficit, the situ­ation would hurt the economy by throwing it out of gear and derailing the economic achieve­ment made so far under the IMF programme.

That hurt would not affect only those who caused it as the whole nation would have to be smarting under its woes.

Therefore, The Ghanaian Times wishes to appeal to the govern­ment to heed all pieces of the ISSER advice given yesterday during the launch of the State of the Ghanaian Economy Report (SGER) 2023 and Review of the 3rd Quarter 2024 Economic Per­formance, as they are captured in its 33rd report.