Coronavirus: Ghana's growth rate projected to decline from 6% to 1.5% - Oppong Nkrumah

Ghana's growth rate has been projected to decline from 6 percent to 1.5 percent due to the shortfalls of the Coronavirus outbreak, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said.

According to him, the budget deficit for the country is also expected to exceed 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) adding, the nation will also be impacted in its macro-fiscal position due to the pandemic.

Speaking at the Minister's press briefing on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the Information Minister says the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has been tasked to put together a Resilience and Recovery Programme to mitigate the economic impact of coronavirus across all sectors.

He adds the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to present and submit the Resilience and Recovery Programme to Parliament and the nation after prior approval by cabinet.

"After deliberations at a cabinet retreat held over the weekend, government has decided that the Finance Minister is to ensure that the macro slippages occasioned by the pandemic are reduced to the barest minimum. It has become obvious however that this year's budget deficit will exceed the 5 percent of GDP projected," Oppong Nkrumah said.

"It is important to note that this slippage is as a result of the massive cuts in national revenues due to the global economic slowdown, reduction in trade and the need to expand some expenditure items to help contain the situation," he added.

The Resilience and Recovery Programme, the Information Minister says, will outline how fiscal expansion measures can assist specific sectors of the Ghanaian economy to achieve a growth rebound.

"Despite the expected hits of the pandemic across all sectors, priority is to be maintained on the following sectors; health, education, infrastructure, food and agriculture, social protection, import substitution and industrial growth as well as security," Oppong Nkrumah explained.