Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) says the new economic revival measures announced by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is a positive sign to international communities.

In an interview with JoyNews' Newsfile on Saturday, Dr Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako stated that these measures would boost investor confidence in the country.

“If I look at some of the things they outlined, one being cutting salaries of government’s employees by 30% and the moratorium on imported vehicles and the ban on travel restrictions that we have, in my mind what that means is that they are trying to show the entire world that they are ready to consolidate and improve their fiscal position,” she told Samson Lardy Anyenini.

The economist’s comment comes after Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on Thursday revealed a wide range of plans to salvage the country’s economy.

The Minister, at a press conference in Accra, expressed optimism that the measures will go a long way to cushion the citizenry amid the economic downturn.

These measures encapsulate expenditure cuts, intense revenue mobilisation drive, fuel price mitigation and currency financing.

According to Dr. Gyeke-Dako, while the measures are what a prudent leader would take to save the economy, government should be commended because those measures were not implemented over the years.

On the other hand, she urged the government to ensure that the measures would be effectively implemented.

“If we say that we are cutting the expenditure on travel, on other discretionary expenditure, we should make sure is that we are making it transparent and visible enough for Ghanaians to see that this is actually what we are doing,” she added.

Meanwhile, former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, has stated that the new expenditure measures announced by the government to cushion the citizenry are not substantive and effective enough to lessen the current economic crisis.

He says due to the distressed nature of the country’s domestic markets, government may have to continue borrowing to service existing debts, a situation he believes would lead to an increase in deficit.

Mr Terkper highlighted that the new measures outlined by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta are not going to make any difference to the deficit, borrowing and the debt situation; yet, may see some concrete numbers.

“It is not a matter of one or two measures; it is positive in one sense even if it is not substantive because much of the expenditure is not going in that area. By the way, we have to borrow to refinance [and] we have to borrow to repay old loan. That is the situation that is facing us.

“Is our domestic market that big and if we are blocked from going to the external markets, then I’m afraid; the problems GUTA is raising are going to be worse because government is coming straight into the domestic markets to borrow and it will increase interest rates, and that is why BoG is increasing policy rate as a signal,” he said.