Budget Review Has Rather Deepened The Woes Of Ghanaians- Minority

The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Ghana’s Parliament is alarmed that the mid-year budget review as presented by the minister of finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has rather deepened the woes of the ordinary Ghanaian citizens.

Addressing the media immediately after the mid-year review presentation, Minority Leader, Dr Casiel Ato Forson stated that the minister has revised the country’s economic growth from 2.8 percent of GDP to 1.5 percent of GDP by the end year 2023, an indication that the economy is contracting and jobs would be affected.

the AAjumako Enyan-Esiam lawmaker also indicated that contrary to assurances made by the finance minister of not borrowing from the domestic market as captured in the 2022 budget of doing zero financing, the minister has rather borrowed an amount Ghc 5.5 billion from the Treasury Bill market without parliamentary approval and has given an indication of further borrowing an additional Ghc 41.3 billion by the end of this year.

These, the minority said are responsible for the increasing inflation, the skyrocketing lending rates and hinted that they would not be surprised inflation would not make any meaningful impact by the end of the year.

According to the minority, the finance minister has missed a golden opportunity to turn the economy around by reducing lending rates downwards to under 15 percent but unfortunately, Ghana’s lending rate is still going up due to over borrowing and over expenditure on the part of government.

Dr Ato Forson also refuted the finance minister’s claim that the cedi has stabilised saying, “the Ghana cedi has stabilized relatively because we have defaulted in the payment of our external debts, If you are to look into the budget, by this time, we should have service our debts, external debts approximately Ghc 11 billion, because we have defaulted in serving out debts owed to Eurobond lenders, China, Saudi Arabia, UK, Japan, France, Czech Republic and many more country’s. …but because we owe all these countries, and because we fail to pay them, we have made some savings that is supporting our balance of payment. It is not because we have turned the corner, they have rather deepened our woes”.

The cedi he said will begin depreciating again by January 2024 when the country start servicing its debts.

The House is expected to make comments on the statement presented on Tuesday, August, 1, 2023.

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