BoG foreign reserve dropped from $9.70bn to $7.68bn, not to $3bn – Kwarteng
Government makes u-turn on BoG reserve figures
The minority in parliament is resisting an attempt by government to amend portions of the report by the finance committee on the $750 million AfreximBank facility.
The committee's report quoted finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta as having told the committee the reserves of the BoG have dwindled from US$9 billion in December 2021 to US$3 billion at the end of June 2022.
But at today’s sitting, on the floor of parliament, the Chairman of the committee Kwaku Kwarteng moved the motion for amendment of the committee's report to indicate the reserves rather dwindled from over $9 billion to $7.68 billion and not US$3 billion as earlier reports indicated.
He said, "Mr Speaker, on 19th July 2022, I laid a report on behalf of the Finance Committee before this house on the loan facility agreement between the Government of Ghana and African Export-Import Bank for a maximum of $750 million to finance capital and growth-related expenditures in the 2022 Budget Statement."
“In that report, we reported that the international reserves of the Bank of Ghana had declined from US$9 billion to US$3 billion. Mr Speaker, this was an error. It was an unfortunate oversight.”
He explained that according to Bank of Ghana, "the Gross International Reserves of the country was US$9.70 billion at the close of December 2021. This declined to US$7.68 billion at the close of June 2022.
"In terms of Net International Reserves, the country closed December 2021 withUS$6.08 billion. This position declined to US$3.58 billion at the close of June 2022. Mr Speaker, the error is regretted, and I request the Clerk at Table to ensure that all the records are accordingly corrected.”
The minority, through a ranking member of the finance committee Cassiel Ato Forson, and Minority chief whip Muntaka Mubarak rejected the move.
They argued that if the government wants to correct the figures, they would have to withdraw the entire report of the committee which will include the approval of the $750m loan agreement.
The amendment was however shot down by the intervention of the majority leader, Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu who said the house cannot amend an approved report with a statement.
He said the Finance Minister will make a statement on the matter when he appears on the floor of the house on Monday, July 25.
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