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A Senior Research fellow at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), Dr. Saeed Boakye has said that the 2017 mid-year budget review presentation by the Finance Minister shows that President Akufo-Addo’s government has good intentions for the country.

According to him, inasmuch as the intention is good, the government should exercise patience without a rush in its strive to resolving the economic challenges of the country.

Speaking in an interview on UTV’s 'Adekye Nsroma' Morning Show, Dr. Saeed Boakye averred that it is time for the government to explain to Ghanaians the economic challenges it inherited from the previous government.

“Government has good intention in the mid-year budget the Finance Minister presented, but it must not be done in a rush . . . the government has to exercise patience in resolving the economic challenge; they should explain to Ghanaians the in-depth of the economic situation because this government inherited a serious economic challenge,” he indicated.

He added that the Akufo-Addo administration should again not raise the hope of Ghanaians with immediate resolution of the economic situation as it will take time to bring the economy on the right track.

“The government should not be in a rush to resolve the economic challenge because it might trigger the economy. If you don’t have patience and things trigger what are you going to do? So it is all about patience, but the politicization is too much in the country; that is the problem,” he averred.

He urged politicians to have cohesion in the resolution of the economic situation; thus, the politicians should have a nice social cohesion working towards similar goal in the interest of the country.

Dr. Saeed Boakye therefore advised the government to remain resolute in its strive to restore the economy without succumbing to the pressures from the opposition.

“. . they are rushing to get things done due to the bashing from the opposition and this is because the people in government did their politics outside before coming into power,” he asserted.

He stressed that government has to widen the revenue net as the revenue collected is used on expenditure; reiterating that the government was able to make some savings of about Ghc4 billion through capping revenue but much of it was used to enter into the new expenditure item they brought on board.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta was at Parliament on Monday to present the mid-year fiscal policy review of the 2017 budget.

In his presentation, he quoted some macro-economic statistics which showed that the nation performed poorly than earlier reported in the budget.

"Mr. Speaker, on the fiscal front, updated information shows that the end-2016 fiscal deficit was worse than previously estimated, at 9.3 percent of GDP compared to the provisional figure of 8.7 percent of GDP on cash basis at the time of presenting the 2017 Budget. The deficit on commitment basis is now at 10.9 percent of GDP up from the 10.3 percent previously reported."

"The debt servicing payments arising from this legacy of debt accumulation amounts to some 45 percent of total domestic revenue. Unfortunately, our economy would have to live with this burden for some time as we make efforts to repair the damage," he stated.