'I acknowledge that we are going through challenging times' - Bawumia speaks on economy

Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has acknowledged Ghanaians are going through trying times but says other factors rather than government is to blame.

“The economy is what we feel in our pockets. I acknowledge that we are going through challenging times,” he said at lecture on the economy at a National Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) Training and Orientation Conference at Kasoa in the Central Region Thursday.

He added: “This is the reality countries and economies throughout the world are experiencing severe challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic and the more recent Russia-Ukraine war. The pandemic which started early in 2020 resulted in the greatest economic depression since the 1930s, with most countries recording negative growth. Supply chain disruptions and the rising price of oil have resulted in the prices of fuel going up across the globe”.

The Vice President also in his address blamed the fall of the Cedi on the challenges that confronted the passage of the budget.

“The financial markets’ assessments of the 2022 budget, unfortunately, concluded that our projected 40% increase in revenue which underpinned the 2022 budget was not likely to materialize and therefore, our deficit will increase,” he disclosed during Danquah Institute and the NPP’s TESCON organized event on the state of the economy on Thursday, April 7, 2022.

He continued “The chaotic battle in Parliament over the budget and the passage of the budget did not also help matters. This created uncertainty and signal to the market that government may not be able to get most of its programmes passed in a tightly balanced Parliament. This further reinforced the lack of confidence by investors in the budget.”