The government has announced a new growth strategy to support critical sectors of the economy which have high propensity for growth, and to drive the industrialisation agenda of the country.
The “Ghana Mutual Prosperity Dialogue Framework”, forms part of new measures to sustain the turnaround of the economy, after Ghana opted for the International Monetary Fund programme for a $3 billion balance of payment support in 2022.
The new growth strategy will enhance shared growth anchored on job creation, food security, exports and import substitution, towards supporting the government’s agenda of returning the country to the path of debt sustainability by 2028.
Presenting the Mid-year review of the 2023 budget statement and economic policy of government to Parliament yesterday, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta said the new growth strategy would be finalised in August this year.
He added that it would, among others, be hinged on accelerating scaling-up and aggregation in agriculture and value-addition for key staples such as rice, poultry, maize, soya, tomatoes.
The minister said the objective of the programme was to support the creation of Industrial Parks and Economic zones that promoted innovation and positive spillovers, and promote the efficiency for key sectors such as the automotive, pharmaceutical, technology, and textile and garment industries.
Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that promoting tourism to attract international and domestic tourists to boost incomes and create jobs; deepening the digitalisation of Public Services to promote efficiency in service delivery and protecting the public purse as well as the deepening financial intermediation programmes to enhance inclusion and entrepreneurship would be the focus of the new strategy.
“Given the limited fiscal space as well as our determination not to accumulate new arrears, our growth agenda will be mainly financed from domestic and external private sector investments as well as a rationalisation of ongoing programmes. The approach is to prioritise existing programmes that are critical for growth and can be implemented to deliver quick results without huge demands on the available budgetary resources,” Mr Ofori-Atta stated.
The Finance Minister said the new growth strategy, which formed part of the Post-COVID-19 programme for Economic Growth PC-PEG, government’s medium-term programme to restore macroeconomic and debt sustainability, being supported by the IMF required strong fiscal consolidation.
That, he explained, was to quickly return the country to an era of macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, the preconditions necessary for high long-term economic growth, job creation and rapid transformation.
He said the focus of the PC-PEG was inclusive growth, and pointed out that government’s renewed push for growth was informed by the usual experience that fiscal consolidation tended to have negative impact on growth.
“Mr Speaker, we need to be deliberate and strategic in our actions if we are to exceed our pre-CoVID-19 strong economic growth which averaged seven per cent, compared to 4.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent in Lower Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), respectively,” he stated.
The presentation to parliament of the Mid-Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government and Supplementary Estimates for the 2023 Financial Year is in accordance with Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, which mandates the minister to undertake the exercise not later than July 31.
It is the first Mid-year budget statement to the legislature since Ghana secured a US$3-billion extended credit facility from the International Monetary Fund for the balance of payment support.
The 2023 budget dubbed ‘Nkabom’ budget, the seventh to be delivered by the government was on the theme: “Restoring and Sustaining Macroeconomic Stability and Resilience through Inclusive Growth and Value Addition.”
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
