Business News of Friday, 1 July 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-07-01FLASHBACK: No turning back to IMF, we're on the right path - Ken Ofori-Atta
play videoFinance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
In May this year, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta reiterated government's stance on turning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial bailout.
According to him, government is committed to not returning to the IMF due to interventions and policies in place to ensure sufficient macroeconomic gains for the local economy to bounce
Read full articleback on track.
Ken Ofori-Atta speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday May 12 indicated that the IMF is aware that the Ghanaian economy is heading in the right direction.
He however called on Ghanaians to help government find alternative ways of financing the country's growing debt.
Read the full story originally published on by GhanaWeb on May 12, 2022
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, May 12, 2022, Ken Ofori-Atta said, “We are members of the fund; there are two major points of interventions that we have from the fund. One being the advise that we get because of the phenomenal expertise that the fund has and then secondly, these programme interventions which bring us some resources...I think, if you see from the budget that we constructed for 2022 and the subsequent announcement that we have done, clearly, the issue of Ghana having the capacity to think through the consolidation exercise exist. Also discipline itself with regards to the 20 per cent, etc, that we have shown clearly.”
“We have committed to not going back to the fund because in terms of the interventions and policy we are right there, the fund knows that we are completely in the right direction. The issue is, validating the programmes that we have put in place and then, in my view, supporting us to find alternative ways of financing or re-financing our debt, reprofiling it,” the finance minister added.
Government has instituted some home-grown solutions including the introduction of the E-Levy to stop the economy from wobbling.
The E-Levy imposes a 1.5% charge on all electronic transfers above GH¢100.
The tax policy is a move by the goverment to widen the country's tax net.
Meanwhile, the charging entities for the E-Levy are telecommunications companies, commercial banks, special deposit-taking institutions and Payment Service Providers (PSPs).