Minister for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta has appealed to Members of Parliament (MPs) to approve the revenue measures contained in the 2023 budget statement and economic policy of government to help stimulate Ghana’s post-Covid pandemic economic recovery programme.
The new revenue measures, he indicated, are part of the creativity and changes in some rules that all Ghanaians should support as government confronts the current economic crisis facing the country.
Mr. Ofori-Atta made the call at the 2023 post-budget workshop at Ho in the Volta Region on Saturday.
According to him, the economic crisis is real and has culminated in a cost of living crisis, high food prices and increased oil costs and tightened financial conditions especially in developing economies.
The 2023 budget, he said, has been prepared within the context of this very difficult economic situation due largely to external economic shocks, domestic debt levels, interest charges and the Parliamentary stalemate on the budget debate last year.
International development institutions, he said, are projecting tough times ahead and stressed this is the time to be brutal with the truth.
Mr. Ofori-Atta indicated that the global economy in 2023 and beyond puts inflation higher than seen in several decades globally.
“Global growth has been projected to slow down from an estimated 3.2% in 2022 to 2.7% in 2023.
“The impact of these global shocks together with domestic development has resulted in high exchange rate depreciation, high inflation, rising interest rates, significant fiscal stress, unsustainable debt burden, dwindling gross international reserves at the Bank of Ghana, credit rating downgrades and low GDP growth,” he added.
The Finance Minister argued if there ever was an economic crisis, this is one of them and lamented how these challenges derailed the remarkable turnaround the government achieved prior to the COVID pandemic between 2017 and 2019.
He stressed that macroeconomic stability was largely restored during the time and growth rebounded strongly with the government investing about GH¢28.3 billion in growth-enhancing and employment creation flagship programmes and social interventions.
According to Mr. Ofori-Atta, the 2023 Budget has therefore been prepared to restore macroeconomic stability, promote fiscal and debt sustainability and build resilience for faster economic recovery and protect the poor and vulnerable.
This, he said, is the reason for the theme of the 2023 budget, ‘Restoring and sustaining macroeconomic stability and resilience for inclusive growth and value addition.”
He indicated that government is very clear on the technical interventions but argued in order to rise and build there must be a common language.
