President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given the assurance that his Administration remains committed to fostering appropriate measures and policies to stabilise Ghana’s economy.
The agenda is to engage key stakeholders and identifiable groups, share experiences and analyse the current challenges confronting the nation, and work together to find the antidote to these problems.
Interacting with members of the Ghana Employers Association, at the Jubilee House, Accra, the President was optimistic that the country would surmount the prevailing economic challenges.
The meeting was in line with the government’s wider consultation with key players to find a solution to the difficulties the country is going through.
At the heart of the discussion was the depreciation of the Ghana cedi and how it could be stabilised to engender investor confidence and business activities.
According to the World Bank, fiscal pressures in the country remained high.
Over the first half of 2022, the fiscal deficit reached 5.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), way above the 3.9 per cent target for the same period.
“As of the end of June, this year, public debt reached 78.3 per cent of GDP, and interest payments reached 54.4 per cent of revenues over the first half of the year,” says the world’s financial body.
Additionally, inflation rose to 31.7 per cent year-on-year in July, 2022, from 12.6 per cent at the end of 2021.
The Bank of Ghana says the impact of soaring global commodity prices (Ghana imports 40 per cent of its fertilizers from Russia) has been compounded by the depreciation of the cedi, which has, so far, lost 24 per cent against the US Dollar this year.
President Akufo-Addo said despite those macroeconomic headwinds, the government was working assiduously to change the narrative.
He lauded the Ghana Employers Association for engaging the government to share experiences to bring sanity into the management of the economy.
Mr Daniel Acheampong, the Association’s President, said the members were worried of the mounting fiscal and debt levels.
“Our aim is to work with the government to stem the tide,” he said.
