The Ghanaian economy has been on an upward trajectory over the past three decades, yet a number of challenges bedevil growth, redistribution and sustainability. After 56 years of independence, the need for a formal academic and practitioner forum for engaging minds on the past, present and future state of the economy has been lurking in the background. The birth of the Ghanaian Journal of Economics is a response to this urgent quest, providing a platform for cutting edge research on the Ghanaian economy and similar other economies to inform policy design and implementation.
As the maiden issue, this review article seeks to retrace developments in the economy a few steps back to bring readers up to date on current state of research. The review is historical, and the scope is to synthesize the diverse developments in the Ghanaian economy within the confines of a relatively brief article. This article is thus not an
exhaustive treatment of the topic, and it does not cover all the esoteric details of the Ghanaian economy. In the end, however, we hope to offer some perspectives on the literature for readers of the journal, investors, managers of the economy, regulators and academics while also providing a roadmap for future research endeavours.