Ghana\u2019s economy may be looking healthier on paper, but that recovery hasn\u2019t reached the wallets of ordinary citizens. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s the warning from economist and lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Professor Patrick Asuming. <\/p>\n
Speaking on PM Express Business Edition on JoyNews, Prof. Asuming cautioned against over-celebrating recent improvements in key macroeconomic indicators when most people are still struggling to keep up with rising costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems to me that the financial and the monetary side of the economy has performed better, and the real side seems to be lagging,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a disconnect between how people are perceiving the economy and what the macro numbers are telling us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that while inflation is coming down and the Producer Price Index (PPI) has dropped from around 18 to 10 per cent, that doesn\u2019t mean prices are falling.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices are still rising. They haven\u2019t declined. The rate of increase has reduced, but that\u2019s not the same as things getting cheaper,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Prof. Asuming said recent gains in the cedi, improvements in foreign reserves, and falling Treasury bill rates are signs of financial stabilisation. <\/p>\n
But he warned that these gains don\u2019t necessarily translate into relief for businesses or households. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe currency has strengthened, yes, but look at the other components of production\u2014tariffs are going up, wages are not going down, and domestic production costs keep rising,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
He said that the overall economic picture looks better, largely because government has acted quickly to put its finances in order. <\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment has done well on the fiscal side. Our reserve position has improved, partly from policy direction and partly from luck with global prices of our exports. <\/p>\n
“But when you dig deeper, it\u2019s clear that the real economy, the part that touches people\u2019s lives every day, isn\u2019t recovering at the same pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof. Asuming pointed to the GDP numbers for the first quarter of 2025 as a clear example. <\/p>\n
\u201cYes, GDP outperformed expectations, but when you break down the numbers, you see that five out of the 20 sub-sectors of the economy actually saw a decline. <\/p>\n
“The ones that grew had more weight, so they pushed the overall number up. But that masks some real weaknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed that focusing too much on headline numbers can give a false sense of progress. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t assume that a decline in inflation means prices are coming down or that the economy is booming just because the macro indicators look better,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are still under pressure. The average Ghanaian isn\u2019t yet feeling the recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof. Asuming said it\u2019s crucial to close the gap between the financial recovery and improvements in daily living conditions. <\/p>\n
\u201cUntil the real side of the economy starts catching up, people will continue to feel that we are recovering on paper\u2014but not in their pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n
DISCLAIMER: <\/strong>The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.<\/p>\n DISCLAIMER: <\/strong>The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ghana\u2019s economy may be looking healthier on paper, but that recovery hasn\u2019t reached the wallets of ordinary citizens.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-199738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114715467789480352","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}