Prof. Abdul-Aziz Iddrisu, a Senior Lecturer in Banking and Finance at the Banking Technology and Finance, Department of Kumasi Technical University, has refuted assertions made by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta that the Ghanaian economy is rebounding. These claims were made by the minister.
In order to demonstrate why the Finance Minister made a mistake in his report during the mid-year budget review, he pointed out that Ghana experienced growth of 3.1% in 2022; hence, if the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta asserts that the economy is steady and better than it was seven months ago, then Ghana should not be expanding at a rate of 1.5%.
According to the Minister of Finance, the Ghanaian economy is slowly recovering as a result of the measures that the government has put into place, and this is something that the minister has claimed.
In response to this, however, Professor Abdul-Aziz Iddrisu stated, "It is important to note that it is expected that the world will grow by 3% in 2023; Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow at 3.5% in 2023; and West Africa is expected to grow by 3.9% in 2023."
According to the World Health Organisation, the fact that the COVID-19 virus is no longer a pandemic is one of the most significant setbacks. Not just Ghana is impacted by the headwinds; other countries are as well. How could it be expected of a country that is doing better now than it was seven months ago to grow at a rate that is less than half of its own growth rate from the previous year?
Prof. Abdul-Aziz Iddrisu went on to point out that the Finance Minister chose data from the IMF report to use in his case while he was speaking on the floor of Parliament. These figures were included in the Mid-Year Budget Review Report.
"The Minister of Finance made the decision to adopt the IMF's estimate from April 2023 even though the most recent update from July was available a week before he read his announcement. According to him, the expansion of the global economy is anticipated to be 3.4% lower in 2023, coming in at 2.8% instead of the 3.4% seen in the previous year. The International Monetary Fund provided this number in April of 2023. The July update by the same IMF has modified the statistic from 2.8% to 3%, and this information was accessible a week before he read his remark," he emphasised. In the meantime, the IMF has adjusted the figure from 2.8% to 3%.
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