Some key issues raised by the Minority Caucus after Mid-Year Budget Review

The Minority Caucus in Parliament has accused the government of shifting key economic figures to disguise poor fiscal performance, following Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson’s presentation of the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review on July 23, 2026.

Addressing the media after the Mid-Year Budget Review, Mohammed Amin Adam, former finance minister said the review exposed several contradictions in the government’s own numbers, beginning with gross international reserves.

He noted that under the Accelerated Reserve and Gold Purchase Programme (ARGP) presented to Parliament, the Finance Ministry had projected reserves would reach 8.6 months of import cover by the end of 2026.

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In Thursday’s review, the target had fallen to just three months of import cover.

“Those of you who were in this Parliament when the minister brought a reserve management policy to this House, it was stated that by the end of 2026, gross reserves would reach 8.6 months of import cover. Suddenly, in the minister’s presentation today, he stuck to three months of import cover. How does 8.6 months of import cover suddenly become three months?,” he questioned.

Speaking on behalf of the minority, he also pointed to shifting figures on the primary fiscal balance. According to them, the 2025 budget statement gave the 2024 primary deficit as 3.9% of GDP, the 2026 budget revised that figure to 3.1%, and Thursday’s mid-year review revised it again, to 2.9%.

Dr Amin Adam argued the repeated revisions of a figure for a year that had already closed pointed to manipulation rather than improved data.

He linked the reserve figures to recent comments from the Bank of Ghana Governor, who this week acknowledged that the financing arrangement behind the gold-for-reserves programme was flawed and confirmed the central bank had discontinued its involvement in financing the initiative after recording losses estimated near $900 million.

He said the government’s mid-year statement made no mention of these losses.

On the public debt stock, the Minority cited figures showing Ghana’s total debt stood at GH¢720.7 billion at the end of 2024. In presenting the 2026 budget last October, the Finance Minister said the stock had been reduced to GH¢630.2 billion a decline the government cited as evidence of prudent debt management.

However, he noted that Bank of Ghana data as of May 2026 puts the debt stock back at GH¢720.8 billion, effectively erasing the roughly GH¢90 billion reduction the government had claimed. Including new borrowing brought to Parliament for approval this week, the Minority said the increase in the debt stock could exceed GH¢100 billion.

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The Minority said it would continue to scrutinise the figures and hold government officials accountable for the discrepancies.



DR/SA