General News of Thursday, 18 January 2018

Source: starrfmonline.com

Akufo-Addo has delivered – ISSER Fellow

President Akufo-Addo President Akufo-Addo

A fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Dr Charles Ackah has extolled the government’s management of the economy.

According to him, the economy has made significant gains under president Akufo-Addo in comparison with his predecessors.

“The overall assessment of the Akufo-Addo government from the macroeconomic point of view seems to be positive,” he said Thursday at a roundtable discussion organised by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) to assess President Akufo-Addo’s one year in office.

Dr. Ackah continued, “It…looks commendable [even though] it is just one year and given the background that the economy has had some challenges for some years, we would like to think that this is a good stability.”

“… And we expect that more should be done this year [2018] so that we can actually see more growth and more expansion in job creation,” he added.

His commendation of the government’s economic management comes barely 24 hours after President Akufo-Addo engaged the media Wednesday, enumerating the success chalked under his stewardship.

Speaking during the encounter, the president said his administration, over the course of its first year in office, rose to the challenge, and demonstrated that doing things differently achieves positive results.

He said, “We inherited an economy that was in distress, choked by debt, and with macroeconomic fundamentals in disarray. We had to do things differently, and those were my marching orders to all members of the government.”

Thus, upon assumption of office, his Economic Management Team set to work to sort out the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals and to find imaginative ways to deal with the oppressive debt situation.

“I am glad to report that the hard work on that front is yielding positive results. The macroeconomic fundamentals have seen improvements through improved fiscal and monetary discipline,” the President said.

“Real GDP growth has rebounded, recording a growth of 9.3% in the third quarter of 2017, against the 3.5% figure for the same period of 2016. Latest information indicates that inflation is at 11.8%, down from 15.6% at the end of December 2016,” he stressed.