Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has promised that the government is doing everything it can for Ghana’s economy to take a positive turn this year.
Dr. Amin made this pledge when he was speaking at a Town Hall Meeting in the United Kingdom.
According to him, Ghana’s economy before Covid-19 was one of the fastest-growing economy in the world but experienced some shocks due to the pandemic.
Expressed optimism, he noted that the country’s economy this year will make a rebound.
“This year, our economy is going to surprise the whole world,” he said.
“Before then, [Covid-19] our economy was growing an average 8% and it was one of the highest growing economy in the world. Inflation was a single digit and the NPP government is credited for having the longest period of a single digit in 2018 and 2019 in the history of Ghana. Our fiscals were contained, we had surpluses but because we knew how to bring the economy back and not how to bring lives back, we had to pause at a point and we borrowed and spent heavily on Covid-19.
“The net effect of the spending we did on Covid-19 was GH¢21 billion. Apart from spending GH¢14 billion directly, we lost revenue of about GH¢7 billion but i can tell you that this economy is rebounding strongly and is surprising the world and even the IMF, the World Bank are all surprised. Last year, they projected our economy will grow at 1.5%, we grew at 2.9%. In the first quarter of this year, they projected we will grow at 3.1% we grew at 4.7%.”
Dr. Amin added that Ghana’s manufacturing sector is on steady growth, which is helping the economy.
“During the NDC era, manufacturing was negative for three consecutive years. Last year, manufacturing was negative for us as well but I can tell you in the first quarter, manufacturing has turned positive and the growth in the first quarter is fueled by industry. Industry alone grew 6.8% and so there is hope. The manufacturing sector is coming back. We are going to continue to create jobs in addition to the 2 million jobs that we have created already. This economy will grow, and it will grow faster than everybody thinks.”
