“If you say you have turned the corner, what did you find in turning the corner? Duffour questions Finance Minister

Kwabena Duffuor, a former Finance Minister, has questioned “what corner” Ghana’s faltering economy has reportedly turned because, in his opinion, the data suggests otherwise.

Mr. Ofori-Atta stated on July 1, 2022, “we took what was then a very difficult but necessary decision to request support from the IMF to implement our Post-COVID-19 Programme of Economic Growth (PC-PEG),” presenting the mid-year budget review to parliament on Monday, July 31, 2023.

He stated that the nation “was going through a dire period of economic uncertainties and despondency”.

The following year, he informed the legislature that “our steps are more grounded, the vision is clearer, the path to recovery is better set, and confidence in our economy is back, growing gradually.”

“We have turned the corner and, more importantly, we are determined to continue down that path. Soon, we expect the measures taken resulting in economic activity greater than anything experienced in the history of the Fourth Republic”.

“Our plans and programs should soon lead to a sustained increase in domestic production, including manufacturing and farming, replacing many of the products that we are used to importing,” Mr. Ofori-Atta stated.

The PC-PEG is our coordinated response to the macro-fiscal challenges, which H.E. the President charged us to develop in March 2022, before going to the IMF, according to Mr. Ofori-Atta, who noted that when he presented the 2023 Budget in November of last year, “I indicated that we would pursue major fiscal and monetary policy measures within the framework of the PC-PEG.”

He said that “parliament passed the revenue, and expenditure measures as well as several other macro-critical economic policies we presented in the 2023 Budget, and we are grateful for that” as a first step toward achieving this goal.

However, in response to Mr. Ofori-Atta’s evaluation of the economy’s success, Dr. Duffuor questioned: “What corner?”

He declared: “If you look at the economic growth that the BoG figures have provided for the first quarter of this year, we had a number of contractions in very significant industries. Construction, mining and quarrying, wholesale and retail trading, as well as water, sewage, and waste management, have all seen contractions.

In an interview with Citi TV, he questioned, “If you say you have turned the corner, what did you find in turning the corner? These are very important sectors that have contracted.”

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com