Ghana's economy is recovering from the ruins of the past couple of years, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has told parliament in his mid-year budget review on Monday, 31 July 2023.

Reporting on the economy for the first half of the year, Mr Ofori-Atta said while the 2023 budget was presented in November 2022 using end-September 2022 data, "We now have end-December 2022 data, which indicate that:

i. Overall Real GDP growth was 3.1 per cent compared to the revised target of 3.7 per cent;

ii. Non-Oil Real GDP growth was 3.8 per cent compared to the revised target of 4.3 per cent;

iii. End-December inflation rate was 54.1 per cent compared to the projected 28.5 per cent;

iv. Total Revenue and Grants for the period amounted to GH¢96.7 billion (15.8 % of GDP) compared with the revised target of GH¢96.84 billion (16.4 per cent of GDP);

v. Total Expenditure on commitment basis amounted to GH¢165.1 billion (27.0% of GDP) against the revised target of GH¢133.8 billion (22.6% of GDP);

vi. Overall Budget deficit on commitment basis was 11.8 per cent of GDP against the revised target of a deficit of 6.3 per cent of GDP; vii. Primary Balance on commitment basis was a deficit of 4.3 per cent of GDP against a revised target of a deficit of 0.7 percent of GDP viii. On cash basis, the Overall Budget deficit was 10.7 per cent of GDP against the revised target of a deficit of 6.6 per cent of GDP; ix. The corresponding Primary Balance on cash basis was a deficit of 3.2 per cent of GDP against a revised target of a surplus of 0.4 per cent of GDP; and x. Gross International Reserves was equivalent to 2.7 months of import cover".

He said with the approval of parliament, the government set out to achieve the following key macroeconomic targets for 2023:

i. Overall Real GDP growth of 2.8 per cent;

ii. Non-Oil Real GDP growth of 3.0 per cent;

iii. End-December inflation rate of 18.9 per cent;

iv. Overall budget deficit of 5.9 per cent of GDP (on commitment) and 7.7 percent on cash basis;

v. Primary Balance (Commitment basis) of a surplus of 0.7 per cent of GDP and deficit of 1.1 per cent of GDP on cash basis; and

vi. Gross International Reserves to cover not less than 3.3 months of imports.

"As I have indicated, we have made significant progress on restoring macroeconomic stability and the narrative is changing", he said, insisting: "The economy is showing signs of recovery".

The exchange rate, he noted, has stabilised, inflation has softened, and interest rates have declined since December, 2022.

"These outturns are the result of focused implementation of all the measures we presented in the 2023 budget and the positive sentiments arising from the progress with the IMF Programme", he explained.

Sompaonline.com