We Have Managed the Ghanaian Economy Exceptionally Well Despite Multiple Crisis – Finance Minister Amin Adam
Minister for Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has stated that the incumbent NPP government has performed exceptionally well in managing the Ghanaian economy despite the multiple economic crises the country – the Covid pandemic, unsustainable debt levels and its attendant debt restructuring – has gone through in the last three to four years.
Making the assertion during a press briefing to mark the conclusion of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings, the Finance Minister cited the significant reduction in inflation, a recovery and near-return to the pre-pandemic GDP growth rate, stability in the cedi depreciation, and significant investments in social interventions as some of the many gains chalked up despite the multiple crises that hit the economy.
“We were in crisis, a high-volume crisis, and don’t forget that before COVID, we were growing at 7 percent on average. Now we are hit by COVID and now we are talking about high inflation, but now we have more than halved inflation amid the crisis.
“So with this indicator, we come to the exchange rate. We see a depreciation by the end of 2022 at another 54 percent. But now we are talking about 25, 26 percent depreciation year-to-date.
“Then when you come to growth, growth went down to 0.5 percent by the end of 2020, but growth rate was around 7 percent before the Covid. Now as at half-year in 2024, we have already done 5.8 percent.
“In this 5.8 percent, it is 0.4 percent year-to-date higher than the half-year growth of 2019, so it tells you that we have strong growth in the period before the pandemic. Now let’s talk about investments, we invested in social interventions such as the free senior high school and have seen a high score of 5.7 million young people getting admission into schools. And all these are amid the challenges of the crises.
“Now on the national health insurance, we are spending some GHS 6.5 billion on the scheme. In 2016, by this time, we had spent only about GHS 1 billion. So you can imagine the benefits that people have benefited from national health insurance scheme.
“So on all accounts, we have performed very well. So even though this government is coming to its end, we have a strong foundation in place and the next government will build on this strong foundation that we have,” the Finance Minister remarked.
The Finance Minister also voiced confidence in Ghana’s economic trajectory following the IMF’s upward revision of the nation’s 2024 GDP growth projection to 4% from an earlier estimate of 3.1%.
Speaking further at the press briefing, Dr. Amin Adam highlighted Ghana’s substantial economic recovery gains this year, attributing the IMF’s optimistic adjustment to these improvements.
Dr. Amin Adam suggested that investments made by Government in key sectors such as agriculture, rural infrastructure, tourism, and ICT would bolster the nation’s growth momentum this year.
“We are not surprised by the Fund’s revision to 4%, given our investments in agriculture, rural infrastructure, tourism, and ICT, many of which are set to mature by year-end,” he stated, also emphasizing the significant investments made in SMEs as well.
