By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Minister of Finance, Ofori Atta, has told Parliament that the macroeconomic performance for the first three (3) quarters of 2023 has responded positively within the context of the targets that were set in the 2023 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review.
Presenting the Budget Statement and the Economy Policy for the year ending December 31, 2024, on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, on the floor of Parliament Ken Ofori-Atta noted, “the provisional macroeconomic data on the performance of the economy for the period Q1–Q3 2023 demonstrated Government’s relentless commitment to keep the corner turned. The IMF rightly described Ghana’s recent macroeconomic performance in the first review as “compelling performance.”
He said the prompt deployment of strong fiscal and monetary policy measures largely accounts for the continued macroeconomic stability and economic recovery, and “the Growth in 2023 has been more resilient than earlier expected, inflation has been on the decline, the fiscal and external balances have improved, and the exchange rate has stabilised”.
He mentioned the introduction of the Gold-For-Oil (G4O) Policy in 2022 by the government, the policy, which leverages the Bank of Ghana’s domestic gold purchase programme intended to provide foreign exchange financing for the importation of petroleum products and help reduce demand for US dollars from the Bulk Import Distribution and Export Companies (BIDECs) who would have otherwise gone to the market to source forex for the importation of petroleum.
Targets Government set in the 2023 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review include:
i. Overall Real GDP growth of 1.5 percent;
ii. ii. Non-Oil Real GDP Growth rate of 1.5 percent;
iii. iii. End-period inflation of 31.3 percent;
iv. iv. Overall Balance (commitment) of -5.7 percent of GDP;
v. v. Primary Balance (commitment basis) of -0.5 percent of GDP; and
vi. vi. Gross International Reserves (Excluding oil funds, encumbered assets, and pledged assets) sufficient to cover at least 0.8 months of imports of goods and services by end-2023.