Audio By Carbonatix
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has stated that the Ghanaian economy is showing signs of recovery from its recent struggles.
The Minister said the economy has exhibited great signs in the last six months, noting that government will not be seeking a supplementary budget.
Delivering the 2023 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Monday, July 31, Ken Ofori-Atta said, “Mr. Speaker, for the first six months of the year, we continue making progress to exceed our non-oil revenue targets for the year. We have seen improvements in non- oil tax revenue collection despite some noticeable shortfalls in VAT.”
Meanwhile, he said oil revenues have fallen short of expectations. Due to this, he said the Finance Ministry will undertake a downward review of these targets.
“However, oil revenues have fallen short of expectations due to changes in global prices.”
“We will, therefore, undertake a downward review of the oil-related revenue as well as the corresponding expenditures to align with the under-performance of some of our revenue handles. Specifically, this will impact the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).”
Mr Ofori-Atta has thus urged Ghanaians to support the government in its quest to restore the country’s economy from it ravages.
According to him, the government is determined to ensure that the plight of citizens are ameliorated urgently.
The Minister, has however described 2022 as his worse year in office.
Mr Ofori-Atta said he was compelled to take very “difficult decisions but necessary” for the recovery of the Ghanaian economy.
According to him, key amongst these decisions were the government’s decision to seek for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Mr. Speaker, 2022 was the most difficult year for me as Ghana’s Finance Minister. On July 1st 2022, we took what was then a very difficult but necessary decision to request support from the IMF to implement our Post-COVID-19 Programme of Economic Growth (PC-PEG).”
“The country was going through a dire period of economic uncertainties and despondency.”
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