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The Crisis in the Ghana Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Douglas Rimmer
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Extract

The subject of this article is the unfolding pattern of economic events in Ghana in recent years. No attempt is made either to blame or to excuse those who were responsible for the conduct of national economic affairs. The purpose is merely to reach an understanding of why and how things happened as they did. There does not appear to be much that is peculiarly Ghanaian, or even peculiarly West African, about the pattern of events. Indeed, the argument of this article owes much to the model of stages of economic development propounded by Dudley Seers with mainly Latin American experience in mind.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , May 1966 , pp. 17 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

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References

Page 17 note 1 Seers, Dudley, ‘The Stages of Economic Development of a Primary Producer in the middle of the 20th Century’, in Economic Bulletin of Ghana (Legon), VII, 4, 1963.Google Scholar

Page 17 note 2 Imports rose from £48 million in 1950 tO £13O million in 1960. On the relationship between the changes in imports and the changes in aggregate home demand, see the Ghana, Economic Survey 1957 (Accra, 1958), para. 13.Google ScholarRimmer, , ‘Nineteen Fifty Eight and After’, in Economic Bulletin of Ghana, 1959, III, 8–9, pp.5–13,Google Scholar and ‘Notes on the Economic Outlook and the Budget’, ibid. 1960, xv, 8–9, pp. 12–20; and T. Killick, ‘Ghana's Balance of Payments since 1950’, ibid. 1962, VI, 2, pp. 20–23.

Page 18 note 1 The index of retail prices for Accra, based on June 1954 and relating to manual wage-earners, averaged 112 in 1960.

Page 18 note 2 According to the annual figures for expenditure on gross national product, Ghana earned an aggregate external surplus (excess of exports over imports of goods and non-factor services) of£ 127 million in the years 1950–4; over the period 1955–8, exports and imports were approximately in balance; and in the years 1959–64 the external deficits totalled £132 million. Economic Survey 1964 (Accra, 1965), p. 16,Google Scholar and Ghana, : Projected Level of Demand, Supply and Imports of Agricultural Products in 1965, 5970 and 1975 (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1964), pp. 18 and 91.Google Scholar

Page 19 note 1 The increase would be less marked if the export proceeds were revalued in terms of pounds of constant purchasing power over imports, but the upward trend would still be unmistakable.

Page 21 note 1 Seven-Year Development Plan, 1963–64 to 1969–70 (Accra, 1964), p. 32.Google Scholar

Page 21 note 2 Seven-Year Development Plan: Annual Plan for the Second Plan Year: 1965 Financial Year (Accra, 1965), p. 12.Google Scholar

Page 22 note 1 Seven-Year Development Plan, pp. 5–6.

Page 24 note 1 By the end of 1964 the banks' holdings of Ghana Treasury Bills had risen again to £26.7 million, and they held £13.9 million of Ghana Government stock.

Page 25 note 1 1 The Planning Commission frankly states: ‘The field of basic industries…presents new compulsions and fresh opportunities for continental planning and inter.African co.operation. In accordance with Ghana's policy of African unity the planning and development of basic industry will be done within the framework of continental planning.’ Annual Plan for the Second Plan Year, p. 23.

Page 26 note 1 Economic Survey 1963 (Accra, 1964), pp. 37–8;Google Scholar and Economic Survey 1964 (Accra, 1965), pp. 30–2.Google Scholar

Page 27 note 1 See criticisms of the administration of import licensing in the Economic Survey 1964, paras. 67, 74, 112, and 285. See also the Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Trade Malpractices in Ghana (Accra, 1966).Google Scholar

Page 28 note 1 The rise in the consumer price indices partly reflects increases in tariffs (themselves part of the control on imports) and the introduction of a sales tax in January 1965. Since official price control exists, but is unlikely to be effective, the official price statistics probably understate the actual price rises.

Page 28 note 2 Annual Plan for the Second Year Plan, p. 15.

Page 29 note 1 Source: Cocoa Statistics (F.A.O. Rome), iv, 8, 10 1965.Google Scholar

Page 29 note 2 Economic Survey 1957 (Accra, 1958), para. 29.Google Scholar

Page 31 note 1 If the estimates of a total Ghanaian crop of 440,000 tons in 1965/6 turn Out to be accurate, cocoa farmers' receipts will be down to about £33 million, as compared with about million in £1964/5.