Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has assured Ghanaians that the government will ensure that the economic gains are not destroyed with election-year spending.
He says that the government is committed to enhancing domestic revenue mobilisation and tightening commitments to control spending in order to avoid policy slippages.
Addressing a joint Ministry of Finance, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Bank of Ghana press conference in Accra on Monday, July 1 he said “We are committed to sustaining our macroeconomic policy adjustment and reforms to fully restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, while fostering a sustainable increase in economic growth and poverty reduction. Despite the fact that 2024 is an election year, we are committed to enhancing domestic revenue mobilization and tightening expenditure commitment controls to avoid policy slippage.”
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Dr Mohammed Amin Adam further stated that generally, the macroeconomic environment continues to remain stable as the government implements the IMF-supported programme.
He said that growth is proving to be more resilient and robust than initially programmed and the economy continues to show strong signs of recovery in the first quarter of 2024.
Overall Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for for first quarter of 2024 was 4.7%, the highest since Q1 of 2022, he said.
This growth performance he added, is better than the 3.1% growth recorded in the same period in 2023.
He said “Industry grew the most at 6.8%, followed by Agriculture at 4.1% and Services at 3.3%. The 2024 Q1 GDP growth rate for industry is the highest since Q4 of 2020. Inflation is declining with a strong disinflation process since the beginning of 2023 in response to the ongoing fiscal consolidation, appropriate tightening of monetary policy, and relative stability in the exchange rate. Headline Inflation declined by 1.9 percentage points to 23.1% in May 2024 from 25.0% in April 2024 after peaking at 54.1% in December 2022.
“The Cedi has been under pressure in recent times, however, the exchange rate has largely stabilised since 2023. Year-todate depreciation of the cedi against the US$ is 18.4%
compared to 22.0% recorded in the same period in 2023.”
Read his full statement here
