IFS’ Assessment of Government’s Fiscal Policy Amidst COVID-19

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ghana in March 2020, economic policymaking has been dominated by measures to address the many impacts of the pandemic. In particular, fiscal policy has been deployed on a massive scale to shore up the public health response to COVID-19 and also lessen its effects on the economy. According to the government, taking strong efforts now to tackle the COVID-19 shock will pay off eventually by accelerating the country’s recovery from this unprecedented crisis.

In addition to policies introduced since March, the government recently announced the Ghana CARES Obaatan Pa Program, a GHȻ100 billion development initiative designed to mitigate the economic challenges brought about by the pandemic. The program is expected to be rolled out over the next three and a half years, with the first phase of implementation covering the second half of 2020.

Given its estimated large financing requirement, the Ghana CARES Obaatan Pa Program deserves a full and thorough assessment. However, the complete scope of the program, together with the details of the policies and funding strategies, is not yet known. For this reason, this assessment will focus on the fiscal policy response to the pandemic so far. Before doing that, however, we will first discuss the economic growth context for fiscal policy amidst COVID-19. Click here to read more…