By Stanley Senya
Accra, Sept. 11, GNA – Mrs Eva Mends, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, has reiterated the government’s resolute commitment to restoring macroeconomic stability and economic growth.
She said despite the challenges and the impact of multiple crises economic growth had remained positive.
Mrs Mends was speaking at the opening of the 53rd Meeting of the Technical Committee of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) of Member States in Accra. The Gambia has chaired the Technical Committee for the past six months.
The event, which will end on September 15, 2023, will comprehensively review the Macroeconomic Developments and Convergence reports for member states.
The assessment aims to evaluate progress made toward meeting the primary and secondary criteria required for macroeconomic convergence within the zone.
The Chief Director said Ghana had crafted and secured the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to implement the Post-COVID Programme of Economic Growth (PC-PEG) to enable the country to address the recent macroeconomic imbalances and establish a path to high long-term economic growth.
“Already, we are seeing the results as key indicators have seen a turnaround,” she added.
However, Ghana, like many other economies, continues to contend with record-level inflationary pressures.
She said, nonetheless, the outlook in the near term was positive as inflation had peaked and the government was determined to bring inflation under control through prudent monetary policy measures, including the elimination of monetary financing of the budget as well the ongoing fiscal adjustments.
These efforts at securing stability would greatly enhance the prospects of economic integration in the sub-region.
Mrs Mends said the Monetary policy remained forward-looking to firmly anchor inflation expectations, restore, and maintain price stability and create conditions for inclusive growth.
She reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to the ECOWAS Single Currency Project despite the recent economic challenges, saying the country’s performance on the harmonised convergence criteria has always been above average.
“We assure you that these challenges will be reversed and sustained macroeconomic stability re-established,” Mrs Mends said.
Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, the New Chairman of WAMZ, commended the outgoing Chairman and the Republic of Gambia, for their excellent leadership and immense support for their tenure as the chair of the statutory meetings.
He said the mission was to hold concrete discussions and deliberations aimed at proffering practical recommendations for advancing their collective course of economic and monetary integration in the region, particularly their long-standing vision of rolling out a Single Currency across the zone, for the consideration of our principals.
“I look forward to robust and solution-driven deliberations as we unpack the reports and technical papers for this year’s meetings,” he added.
The Outgoing Chairman Abdulai Diallo said the government of The Gambia remained focused on priority areas of sustained economic development, including fiscal consolidation, domestic revenue mobilisation, modernization of agriculture, improving quality and access to education, rebranding of tourism, and providing quality healthcare.
He said going forward, the outlook appeared promising, occasioned by substantial net remittance inflow, private investment, and a rebound in tourism.
The Outgoing said as their Member States were on the verge of recovering from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war broke out last year, eroding the gains made.
“This development resulted in rising food inflation associated with supply chain disruptions and a slowdown in output growth,” he added.
He said concerning the status of macroeconomic convergence as of the end of December 2022, no Member State of the WAMZ satisfied all the four primary criteria.
Guinea and Liberia attained three of the four primary convergence criteria each and The Gambia and Nigeria met two each, Sierra Leone satisfied one criterion, while Ghana missed all.
He said they needed to offer innovative measures and concrete recommendations to address the emerging challenges in an environment of uncertainty and frequent occurrences of shocks.
GNA