Government is now practising ‘one problem, one loan’ – Ato Forson jabs Ofori-Atta

Ghana is now a Highly Indebted Middle-Income Country, Ato Forson says

Ghana's GDP growth for 2022 revised to 3.7%, minister asserts

Ofori-Atta presents 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review

The Ranking Member of Parliament Select Committee on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, has criticised the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, for

Read full articlefailing to tell Ghanaians the true state of the economy during his presentation of the 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review.

According to Ato Forson, the country is so broke that the government has to virtually borrow always in order to be able to run the country.

“All this government knows to do most is to think that every problem can be confronted with a debt. I call it ‘one problem, one debt’, ‘one problem, one loan’ (1P1L) – that is what this government is practising. Today, our public debt is in excess of GH¢400 billion, yet the minister failed to talk about public debt.

“He failed to tell us that Ghana is not in the position to repay our debt. I was thinking that he will use this opportunity to address the issue of debt restructuring.

“…Let me be honest, our country is now a Highly Indebted Middle-Income Country (HIMIC). Our position is now worse than the HIPC days – that is where we are. I expected the minister to be truthful, candid and to be able to confront the problem head-on but unfortunately, what we witnessed today is nothing but incompetence,” he said.

Ato Forson, who is the Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Esiam, also, said that the revised macroeconomic targets announced by the finance minister including a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target of 3.8 percent cannot be attained because the current situation in the country is very precarious.

Ken Ofori-Atta disclosed that Ghana's GDP growth rate has been revised from 5.8 percent to 3.7 percent.

According to him, the revision in the country's GDP projection and other macroeconomic variables is necessitated by the current global economic hardships.

"In the light of significate changes in the global environment and our own unique challenges, we have revised our economic growth estimate for 2022 to 3.7 percent, down from 5.8 percent as stated in the 2022 budget," the minister said.

He added that aside from the overall GDP growth rate, almost all the order macroeconomic variables have been revised downward with "non-oil GDP growth of 4.3 percent down from 4.9 percent; end-period inflation of 28.5 percent, up from 8 percent. The overall deficit of 6.6 percent of GDP, down from 7.4 percent; primary surplus of 0.4 percent of GDP, up from a surplus of 0.1 percent and a Gross International Reserve of not less than 3-months import cover."







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