We have a track record of turning things around during crisis – Ofori-Atta

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has emphasized the government’s resolve in turning the country’s ailing economy around to better the lives of Ghanaians.

Delivering the 2022 Mid-Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy on July 25, 2022, the Finance Minister touted that the NPP government is well-known for rescuing the country during turbulent times; thus can save the economy from falling apart.

“We are not wavering at all in our resolve to turn this country around. Ours is a history of turning things around when the country is in crisis. When the NPP government took over the reins of government in 2017, we inherited a challenged economy under an IMF programme, which we successfully turned around and exited the programme in 27 months.”

He posited further that the IMF gave Ghana the green light to exit its programme in 2019 because the Akufo-Addo-led administration brought stability to the economy.

“That is a fact. If the economy was not on track, we would not have been given the all-clear. That was why in April 2019, satisfied with the stability we had brought to the economy and the policies we were implementing to sustain growth, the fund gave us the all-clear to exit the programme.”

“Ghana’s growth rate had moved from 3.7% in 2016, the lowest since 1992 to an average 7% in 2017 to 2029. We had cut the rate of inflation by 33% to 7.9%. By the end of 2019, average lending rates had dropped from the 30s to 23.6% and is still dropping.“

He noted that the country is certainly not out of the woods as revenues remain very low, and the nation has billions of arrears and bills to pay accruing from numerous contracts.