2021 Budget: Economy likely to miss 5.7 percent GDP growth target - Terkper

Former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, has projected Ghana is likely to miss a 5.7 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target that has been set out for economic growth rebound in 2021.

This comes after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, told legislators in Parliament on October 28, 2020 that economic growth for Ghana is projected to rebound strongly at 5.7 percent in 2021.

In a reaction on Citi Business News, the former Finance Minister under the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration, Seth Terkper said he projects the growth to fall in line with that of the target set out the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at 4.2 percent for 2021.

“Well, I would go with the IMF and the World Bank. Because they are looking at the trajectory, and remember in 2016 they did say that the economy will grow and rebound at 6% -7%, which is exactly what happened when they took over on account of Sankofa and TEN, which revenue flowed exclusively to them, but which revenue was not used to boost the economy because we went into a consumption spree instead of investment,” Seth Terkper is quoted by Citi Business News.

He continued, “And, so I would go for now with the Fund and the Bank because they have been credible over the years”.

Meanwhile, an Economist, Dr George Domfeh, on his part said economic growth projections for Ghana would have hit 6 percent if not for the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Dr Domfeh, the pandemic has hugely affected the manufacturing and services sector which in turn impacts on Gross Domestic Product growth.

Dr Domfeh, however, cautioned that Ghana’s exports regime could still be at a loss due to a lack of sufficient production activity coupled with some coronavirus induced restrictions on the global export market.