The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has predicted that a total recovery of the economy will occur in two to three years after it suffers a downward slide.
According to him, government will try to rebuild the economy while Ghana tries to pick up after the economy.
Speaking on the PM Express, Ken Ofori-Atta assured that though the recovery will take a trapezoid shape, the economy will definitely pick up.
“I had indicated what I termed trapezoid recovery which means sort of the plummeting impact of the 6.8% to the 0.9% and the slow slide potentially downwards for about two, three years before we pick up again.”
His comments are made on the back of the impact of the novel coronavirus on the economy as many businesses have had to shut down in order to mitigate the spread of the virus.
The Finance Minister however expressed optimism about the current situation saying the situation hasn’t been that bad.
“An economy which is going to shrink literally by 6% in such a short period and see growth plummet and revenues expected to come down about 14 billion and for us to be in this current state but the situation hasn’t been that bad. Foreign exchange has been good and growth is where it is.”
He went on to assure that government will do its best to recover faster and ensure that everyone is taken care of.
“I think the issue for most people is to have the comfort that we’re comfortable with what we’re doing, we’ve been competent and we intend not only to make Ghana stable but also to recover much faster than other places. Even when its COVID and you’re having these foreign exchange numbers, inflation numbers and downgrade in revenues of about 14 billion…but the real curve for livelihoods and lives of people, interventions and to make sure that these informal markets are taken care of.”
Earlier in April, the Finance Minister lamented about the $1 billion loss of the country’s revenue as a result of government’s attempt to deal with the pandemic.
The central bank had also expressed fears the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) will collapse growth in the economy to 2.5 per cent in 2020.
However, the Minister believes that government’s strong efforts to revive the economy might pay off eventually in the coming years should bolder steps be taken.
“I think we should do something about digitalizing the whole economy such that data is much cheaper, obviously online education system is now much clearer to us and that’s the infrastructure we must build. Looking at the health system and the President’s bold move of agenda 88 hospitals or so. We have to tackle some real intractable problems that we have. Now we don’t have unemployment benefits in the system like that so we do it…I think now is the time to make the bold move of doing something like that so that everyone is taken care of.”
