URBAN POPULAR ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAMME AND THE PNDC GOVERNMENT IN GHANA

Abstract

THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAMME (ERP) implemented since April 1983 by Ghana's PNDC government has been remarkably successful at a macroeconomic level. From 1983 to 1989 real GDP grew on average by nearly 6 per cent per annum, allowing for an annual increase in real per capita income of about 3 per cent; the rate of inflation (as measured by the national consumer price index) decelerated on an end-of-period basis from 142 per cent to 15 per cent; and the balance of payments position improved appreciably, switching from an overall deficit of USS243 million to an overall surplus of US$1 10.l The economic gains realized since the inception of the programme have undoubtedly benefitted quite large sections of the population, particularly in the rural areas. In the urban areas also, there are at least superficial signs of economic progress. The visitor returning to Accra after a number of years will be struck by the remarkable improvements in the availability of goods, in the briskness of economic activity, and in the number of motor vehicles and good-quality roads. The extensive building of fine houses in the leafy residential suburbs of Labone and East Legon probably owes more to remittances from abroad than to fortunes made in Ghana, but more than a few resident Ghanaians have clearly done very well financially over the past few years.2 It is equally clear, however, that the majority of urban inhabitants in the lower income groups have experienced very little, if any, improvement in their real incomes, and that some it is unclear how many are probably worse offthan they were six or seven years ago. Complaints that life is hard and getting harder are regularly heard by any visitor willing to listen. This does not of course mean, even from the perspective of a concern for the welfare of these groups, that the ERP has in any simple sense failed. Most such people would probably be far worse off if it had not been adopted.3