Professor of Economics at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Professor Peter Quartey has asserted that the economy will grow more significantly if the government focuses on agriculture, infrastructure and construction for the remainder of the year 2021.

The government has set a growth target of five percent by the end of the year and also hopes to achieve an end-point consumer inflation rate of eight percent, plus or minus two percent.

Already, as part of plans to revive the economy from the impact of COVID- 19, the government has rolled out the Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises Support (CARES) programme.

In an interaction with Citi Business News, Professor Peter Quartey said although the government has initiated various policies borne out of the effects of COVID-19 it should do well to focus on agriculture, infrastructure and construction for the second half of the year.

“Despite COVID-19, we have still been able to reverse the recession that was recorded in the last quarter after COVID struck. We have seen the economy grow at 0.4 % in 2020 and we are told that we are seventh in Africa when it comes to the growth figures so I think the economy is recovering gradually from the recession,” he said.

“Focus should be on providing the enabling environment for these critical sectors to thrive including agric modernisation, agric credit, the value chain process in agric, access to credit, infrastructure and many other areas. The areas in which we see challenges have to do with construction, where there was a decline. But it is also picking up quite rapidly so I expect the government to focus more on providing infrastructure. So I expect the government to focus more on providing infrastructure in terms of providing access roads and many others”.