2024 Budget: How the government turned the corner - Ofori-Atta explains

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, while presenting the 2024 Budget Statement and Government Economic Policy in parliament on November 15, 2023, gave an explanation of how the government successfully turned the corners of the economy, leading to a pivotal turning point in the economic trajectory of Ghana.

According to him, navigating through these challenges are signals that prove that, indeed, the government has turned the corners of the country.

“In the mid-year review, I informed the house that we have started turning the corner. Today, it is evident. We turned the corner when inflations started declining to 54.1% in December 2022 to 35.2% in October 2023,” he said.

The finance minister went on to emphasise the remarkable pace at which the economy has been growing, exceeding expectations despite a projected 1% economic growth.

Ofori-Atta reported that an average growth rate of 3.2% in the first two quarters of the year had been recorded, signalling a robust rebound from previous challenges.

“We turned the corner Mr Speaker, despite the 1% economic projected growth the economy galloped at a remarkable pace and clocked an average of 3.2% growth in the first two quarters of this year.

“We turned the corner when the economy has been under severe pressure over the past two years, depreciating by more than 6.4% in the past nine months compared to 53.9% in the period of 2022. The performance of the cedi is also a reflection of the fact the confidence is back and revenues have been improved and that the recovery is indeed real," he stated.

He also stated international credit rating agencies' improved outlook on Ghana's economy, a departure from recent years' less favourable assessments as part of the reasons.

“We turned the corner when companies started going back to the job market to have workers. We turned the corners when the international credit rate agencies, which have not been favourable to Ghana in recent years started being positive about the economy and we turned the economy when the banking sector started reporting tax growth of 43.8% of 6.2 billion this half year,” he added.

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