2023 Mid-Year budget Review: Gov’t Boasts 6 Areas Reshaping Ghana’s Economy

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has disclosed that the performance of Ghana’s economy amidst post-COVID-19 challenges and the Russia-Ukraine war shows that the economy is returning to normalcy.

During the presentation of the 2023 mid-year budget review in Parliament on July 31, 2023, Mr Ofori-Atta explained that the performance of the country’s economy shows that the country “has turned the corner”.

On behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the minister gave six reasons why the incumbent government believes the country’s economy is improving.

Below are the six reasons. 

i. Overall first-quarter growth for 2023 was 4.2 per cent, up from 3.0 per cent recorded for the same period in 2022. This growth largely reflected an increase in the Services Sector which recorded a growth of 10.1 per cent.

ii. Headline inflation eased in the first half of 2023. From the peak at 54.1 per cent in December 2022, headline inflation gradually trended downwards from 53.6 per cent in January 2023 to 42.5 per cent in June 2023. The moderation in inflation was primarily supported by monetary policy tightening, relative stability in the exchange rate and lower and stable ex-pump petroleum prices.

iii. Cumulatively, the Ghana cedi depreciated by 22.1 per cent against the US Dollar in the year to July 17, 2023, compared to 21.1 per cent in the same period in 2022. The Cedi, excluding the January 2023 depreciation of 20%, has depreciated by an impressive 1.84% between February and July 17, 2023.

iv. Total export receipts fell by 7.9 per cent to US$8,178.56 million on the back of lower crude oil export receipts. Crude oil exports declined by 41.3 per cent year on year due to a 21.4 per cent decline in volumes and a 25.3 per cent fall in prices.

v. Current account recorded a provisional surplus of US$849.16 million (1.1% of GDP) compared with a deficit of US$1,111.87 million (1.5% of GDP) for the same period in 2022.

vi. Gross International Reserves dropped from US$6.2 billion at the end of December 2023 to US$5.3 billion (2.5 months of import cover) in June 2023, reflecting BOG’s objectives of reducing their foreign liabilities in line with the
IMF programme. Net International Reserves received a boost from gold reserves and improved to US$2,353.95 million, equivalent to 1.1 months of import cover, compared with US$1,440.00 million (0.6 months of import cover) recorded at the end of December 2022.