The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has projected the country’s economy to hit GHC1 trillion in 2024, while emphasizing that the Nana Addo government has turned the corner around.
Presenting the 2024 Budget in Parliament on Wednesday 15th November, 2023, Ofori-Atta said, “Mr Speaker the 2024 Budget is even more significant because we crossed the GHC1 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) mark for the first time in our economic history”.
Adding to his assertions, the finance minister stressed saying “Let me repeat Mr Speaker, Ghana’s economy under President Akufo-Addo in 2024 final year in office is projected to be GHC1 trillion from the GHC219.5 billion than we inherited in 2016.”
The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta noted that the Akufo-Addo administration is determined to maintain discipline in order to keep the economy stable. “The government has turned the corner relative to the economic challenges when it successfully completed the first review of the 3-year 3 billion International Monetary Fund External Credit Facility (IMF-ECF) programme.”
He further assured that the government is poised to maintain stability and keep growing and ensure increased growth, currency stability. “We turned the corner when inflation started declining from 54.1 in December to 35.2 in October 2023,” he added. “The recovery is indeed real and is here to stay,” he further assured.
Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that the prompt deployment of strong fiscal and monetary policy measures since the last year as well as in the first half of 2023 largely accounts for the continued economic recovery that is being experienced.
“So far, growth in 2023 has been more resilient than expected, inflation has declined in line with the fundamentals, the fiscal and external balances have improved, and the exchange rate has stabilised,” he said.
Total Government Expenditure Projected for 2024
Total government expenditure projected for the 2024 fiscal year amounts to some GHS 226bn. The projected expenditure represents approximately 21.6% of the country’s current Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The expenditure projection according to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, reflects a reduction of 6.1% of GDP in total expenditures (commitment basis) relative to the outturn in 2022.
“This large decrease comes from the combination of fiscal consolidation efforts of 4.9% of GDP, reflecting an adjustment in revenue by 1% and primary expenditure by 4% of GDP,” noted the Finance Minister.
Total revenue and grants for 2024 are, however, projected at GH¢176.4 billion (16.8% of GDP) and are expected to be underpinned by permanent revenue measures largely tax revenue measures amounting to 0.9% of GDP.
Based on the Finance Minister’s estimates for total revenue & grants and total expenditure (including arrears clearance), the overall budget balance to be financed is a fiscal deficit of GH¢ 61.9 billion, equivalent to 5.9% of GDP. The corresponding primary balance is a deficit of GH¢5.9 billion, equivalent to 0.6% of GDP.
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