Coronavirus: Ghana’s growth rate could slow from 7% to 2.5% - Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo says the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus outbreak could adversely affect Ghana’s growth rate from 7 percent to 2.5 percent, should the situation linger on through the end of 2020.

According to him, the projection was made by the central bank, Bank of Ghana but he adds that government is committed to doing everything in its effort to stabilize the economy and safeguard Ghanaians.

“The Bank of Ghana is predicting a worst-case Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate scenario of 2.5% for 2020, should the virus continue to linger for the rest of the year,” adding that, “the effects on our economy would be dire”.

Speaking during a national broadcast on Friday, March 27, Akufo-Addo stressed; “We know what to do to bring back our economy back to life. What we do not know how to do is to bring people back to life”

“We have demonstrated over the course of the last three years, where we inherited an economy that was growing at 3.4%, and transformed it into one which has grown by an average of 7% over the last three (3) years,” the President added.

According to ratings agency, Fitch, real growth rate for Ghana due to the coronavirus will reduce by 0.3% to 6.2% in 2020. This is against the previous 6.5% forecast for this year. However, Fitch says 6.2% is still good for the country.

“We therefore expect real Gross Domestic Product for Ghana to expand by 6.2% in 2020, down from 6.5% previously,” Fitch earlier projected.

Ghana’s Coronavirus case count as at Sunday, March 29 has reached 152 with a death toll of five.

Meanwhile, some main parts of the country including Accra, Tema and Kumasi, have entered into a two-week lockdown aimed at halting the spread of coronavirus.

The Ghana Health Service has since described these parts of the country as the epicenters, where substantial numbers of the novel coronavirus have been recorded.