Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta says Ghana will meet its 2019 growth projections set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
Some analysts have questioned the significance of the 8.8 percent and 7.6 percent growth rate projections made by the IMF and World Bank for Ghana’s Economic growth for 2019, saying that the country still depends more on imports than export.
However, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta says the projections can be achieved based on works being done by government.
“If an analyst tells you the fundamentals are the same, you can ask if that is really true. If you have inflation coming down from 15.4 percent to 9.2 percent, with a positive primary balance for the first time in a decade, growth around 7 percent, then it’s kind of disingenuous,†Mr. Ofori-Atta told Citi News in an interview.
He, however, acknowledged that there are still major challenges that need to be addressed in terms of keeping the discipline of expenditures, raising revenue and making labour more productive.
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Mr. Ofori-Atta also decried the over-reliance on importation which currently stands at $2.4 billion for food alone.
“Clearly our current account structure is not what we want. We want to either substitute our import so that we don’t import 2.4 billion dollars’ worth of food or we want to export so that we move our exports beyond where we are,†he expressed.
He further stated that although there is still a long way to go in terms of economic growth, the country has come thus far in managing the economy.
Ghanaian economy to grow by 7.6% this year
The World Bank has projected Ghana’s economy to grow by 7.6% this year. This is a slightly higher than government’s own 7.2% growth projection contained in the 2019 budget.
This was revealed at a media interaction between the World Bank and journalists across the continent on the bank’s biannual report on the growth of Africa’s economies, dubbed Africa’s Pulse.
This prediction was made on the back of an expected increase in oil and gas production and expected growth in non-oil revenue, with agriculture expected to see strong growth following government’s investments into the ‘Planting for food and jobs’ programme.
World Bank Country Economist for Ghana, Kwabena Gyan Kwakye lauded government for passing the fiscal responsibility law, saying it was a good sign for future growth.
He said, “The government has more or less made some form of attempts to actually tie itself. For example, we know the fiscal responsibility law that has been set is a very good signal to let everybody know that the government wants to tie itself going forward.â€
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