Mrs Abena Osei-Asare, the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, says the Government is on track with the implementation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG).
She gave the assurance on the floor of Parliament in her comment on the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for the 2024 Financial Year.
The Budget Review Statement was presented on Tuesday, July 23, to the House by Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, the Finance Minister in line with Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
“Mr Speaker, let me clearly put it on record that we have never drilled the IMF programme prior to 2022, we were on track, and we completed even the IMF programme prior to 2020,” Mrs Osei-Asare said.
“Mr Speaker, and again the IMF programme that we are currently on, clearly let me speak to the fact that we are on track, we just received our third tranche of $360 million in June, bringing the total disbursement to $1.56 million.”
She said Ghana went through a successful review of the IMF programme somewhere in April and then on June 28th, the approval came for the third tranche to be released.
“Mr Speaker, we look forward to a very successful review again come the end of September and October,” she added.
The Minister of State said the 2024 Mid-Year Budget Review statement sought to update citizens on the microeconomics and fiscal performance of the year 2023, it sought to also to update the House and citizens of the implementation of the 2024 Budget from January to June.
It also sought to update Members on the progress of the IMF supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) and the debt restructuring as well as the progress being made to improve the economy.
Mrs Osei-Asare noted that at the end of 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate went beyond the target; the revised target was around 2.3 per cent and the nation ended up doing 2.9 per cent.
She said interest rates had softened and that they were able to stabilize the exchange rates.
“Mr Speaker, came 2024, the first quarter of 2024, growth is even around 4.7 (per cent) and is way higher than what we saw in 2023, which was around 3.1 per cent.
Mr Speaker, the most exciting thing about this growth rate is the fact that it is Industry that is driving this growth rate.
Industry went up by 3.6 per cent, followed by agriculture of 4.1 per cent and services 3.1 per cent,” she said.
“So, Mr Speaker, clearly, the economy is on the path of recovery, and we are happy with the policies that we have put in place to make sure the economy gets back on track.
“Mr Speaker, we saw inflation going up to 54.1 per cent in December 2022, currently as we speak, in June, inflation has fallen to 22.8 per cent and this is due to the policies that we have put in place as well as Bank of Ghana’s monetary policy.”
Mrs Osei-Asare said the exchange rate was also being moderated and that they were hoping to bring it down to levels that work for all of Ghanaians.
She said Ghana’s international reserves was also improving, compared to 2023, it was around 2.5 months of imports but as of now it was 3.1 months at the end of June.
She said Ghana’s trade balances and external balances were all trending in the positive; saying “so, clearly it tells you that we are making some recoveries, and we hope to continue with that”.
Mrs Osei-Asare said there was one important thing that Ghanaians had to recognize every time, which was the Structural Reforms that the Government had put in place to get to where the nation was now.
“Prior to 2017, we never had the Audit Committee Report on the Mid-Year, the Review and all the other things but since 2017, this Government has been subjected to many reports, which we have to bring to Parliament and clearly it tells you that we have promoted transparency and accountability under this Government,” she said.
GNA