We know what we’re talking about - Dep. Finance Minister on turning the corner

Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, has reiterated that government has made modest gains in turning the economy around after experiencing severe economic hardship in 2022.

She pointed out that the local currency - Cedi - has stabilized after depreciating against major trading currencies in November last year.

Making this known at the Deloitte Economic Dialogue held in Accra on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, Abena Osei-Asare noted that the inflation rate has taken a downward trend after measures were put in place by the government.

Inflation was brought down from 53.4 percent in 2022 to 35.2% as of October this year.

The deputy finance minister was optimistic that government would hit its single inflation target in the medium term.

"Let me give you few indicators why we think 2023 is the bounce back year. We saw inflation in 2022 and how through for us, the PCPEG and certain disciplines that we put in place, we have seen a fall in inflation. Inflation was 54.1% in December 2022 and today, it is at 35.2 percent for the October inflation numbers," Abena Osei-Asare said.

"Globally, for a country like Ghana, we've been projected to end the year with 42.5 as the inflation rate. If in October we are at 35.2, we hope to build on that and reduce it further," the deputy minister stated

She added that, "For 2023, we projected a growth of 1.5 percent but clearly, what we see now has outpaced our projections. For the first quarter, the growth was 3.4 and the second quarter 3.2 so on the average, a 3.2 percentage growth in the first two quarters and we are hoping to build on that to make sure to stabilize the economy and see more growth that will create wealth and employment.

The Deputy Minister of Finance said these outcomes were as a result of focused implementations of the post COVID-19 programme which the IMF is supporting to implement.

She noted that the focus of the 2024 budget is to complete IPEG projects, rural electrification and telephony networks, prepare and implement growth strategies in Ghana, fully fund the 2024 elections, among others.

SA/MA

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