President Nana Akufo-Addo has said government’s projections for the year 2020 have been thrown out of gear, following the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to the President, the government’s plans and policies for the year 2020 will have to be amended.
The President made this known at the Jubilee House today [Wednesday].
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“I think it is important that everyone in the country knows that the government is one of the biggest if not the hardest hit by this pandemic. We have huge parts of revenues that have gone out of the window as a result of this pandemic.
“The 2020 budget which was made in November was predicated on a 65 dollar barrel oil. Today, we now know that oil is 18, 19, 20, 21 dollars a barrel so even that statistics should tell you what a big hole thas been created as a result.”
Coronavirus pandemic to cost Ghana GHS9.5bn
The fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic is set to cost Ghana GHS9.505 billion, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, had earlier said.
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This will be 2.5 percent of Ghana’s revised GDP.
The pandemic will also take a toll on Ghana’s GDP growth.
Mr. Ofori-Atta said a preliminary analysis of the impact of the virus “on the real sector shows that the 2020 projected real GDP growth rate could decline from 8 percent to 2.6 percent with an outbreak and 1.5 percent with a partial lock-down.”
The Minister also explained that “the overall fiscal deficit will increase from the programmed GHȼ18.9 billion to GHȼ30.2 billion, which will be 7.8 percent of revised GDP.”
“The primary balance will correspondingly worsen from a surplus of GHȼ2,811 billion (0.7 percent of GDP) to a deficit of GHȼ5.6 billion (1.4 percent of GDP),” he added.
Source: citinewsroom.com
