Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Prof Peter Quartey, has said that going into a lockdown would slow down economic activity in the country.
According to him, a lockdown would decrease growth projection as there is not much production and consumption.
He added that it is likely to affect employment as well as government’s fiscal positions.
“Mind you when we go into a lockdown and there’s not much production, revenue would go down and government might have to borrow to finance some of these health related expenditures so we have to be careful about this,” he warned.
Mr Quartey, expressing his view on impact of another possible lockdown, said the livelihood of the poor, weary and vulnerable who live on subsistence basis should be considered as well.
“You recall when we went into the three weeks’ lockdown, there were some agitations from the vulnerable, poor and weary they could not stay indoors because they live on a subsistence basis, from hand to mouth, therefore, when we go on lockdown, for how long? And how do we feed them? How do we ensure that their livelihood is not affected?” he quizzed.
He further stated that the lockdown “could even have social and psychological implications because people like to move, human beings are made to move, not to be idle or restricted so that could have psychological effect on the populace as well.”
The Director of ISSER noted that the economy, to some extent, is resilient but not when it comes to agriculture, adding that “a healthy population and labour force is needed, therefore, anything that threatens the health of the people should be curtailed as quickly as possible.”
“There wasn’t a significant increase in import of food and other items, we were able to manage food production and consumption wasn’t a problem, there were no shortages of many commodities but to some extent, it depends on how long we go for the lockdown, if it extends to a certain period then we might likely face some challenges,” he said