The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta admitted in his 2022 mid-year budget review he presented to Parliament on Monday July 25, that there are some challenges facing the economy, Spokesperson of the Vice President, Dr Gideon Boako, has said.
Basically, he said, the Finance Minister indicated that the sufferings and pains of Ghanaians are not on the bind side of the government.
During the presentation on Monday July 25, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that the state of the Ghanaian economy is not in the best shape.
He recounted the challenges Ghanaians are going through due to the impact of the warfare between Russia and Ukraine as well as Covid.
“Towards 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, a situation that worsened the already weakened global supply chain exacerbated by high conditions.
“These have had a debilitating toll on the cost and standard of living of our people. Mr Speaker, food prices are rising, fuel and transport fares are up, the cost of borrowing for businesses and for households has increased, the cedi has depreciated and the economic outlook has dipped significantly.”
He further admitted that these are difficult times for the government especially his Ministry.
“The state of affairs is quite a painful one for me to report to you, it is hard to see our people lament about the prices of basic commodities, these are difficult times for government and indeed, for the Finance Minister.”
Contributing to a discussion on the presentation, Dr Gideon Boako who is also an economist said “Basically, the Finance Minister seized the opportunity to make some honest admissions and I think this is keen at this point where Ghanaians are reeling under the effects of Russia Ukraine war.
“The global economic circumstances and things have changed, prices have risen, people are finding it quite difficult to survive , government need to share in the pain, here you may say pain sharing and let people understand that whatever Ghanaians are going through, it is not on the blind side of government. I think the Finance Minister did that so well,” he said on Citi TV Monday July 25.
