The 2022 mid-year budget review submitted by the Finance Minister is “nothing but hollow,” according to the minority caucus in Parliament.
The caucus claims that Ken Ofori-Atta blew a great opportunity to explain to Ghanaians the main problems impacting them and how those problems would be resolved.
After the budget was presented, Cassiel Ato Forson, a member of parliament representing Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam, addressed the media and lambasted the presentation for being essentially empty.
The budget was “very empty. Everything in this country is not working yet the Minister responsible for Finance appeared before us and said nothing, he failed to address the very concerns of the ordinary Ghanaians.”
“Today, he comes here once again only to tell us that he has missed all the targets he set in the 2022 budget, everyone of them, he could not achieve,” he said.
The former Deputy Finance Minister who expected Ken Ofori-Atta to touch on Ghana’s debt noted that “today, our public debt is in excess of 400billion cedis and yet the Minister in this document fails to talk about the public debt.”
In order to stabilize the economy, he consequently urged the New Patriotic Party to turn over leadership to the opposition National Democratic Congress.
“We can do it, we have done it before,” he said.
The midyear budget review was presented by the finance minister, who noted that the overall Real GDP for 2021 increased substantially by 5.4 percent, outpacing both the revised annual target of 5.1 percent for 2021 and the 0.5 percent recorded in 2020.
He disclosed that non-oil GDP growth also increased to 6.9 percent compared to a growth of 1.0 percent recorded in 2020, and the revised 2021 target of 7.0 percent while the overall budget deficit of GH¢28,095 million (5.6% of GDP), against a deficit target of GH¢19,730 million (3.9% of GDP).
“Furthermore, based on the developments for the first six months of 2022 and outlook for the rest of the year, we have accordingly revised the macro-fiscal targets for 2022 as follows: Overall GDP Growth rate of 3.7 percent down from 5.8 percent; Non-Oil GDP Growth rate of to 4.3 percent down from 5.9 percent, End period inflation of 28.5 percent up from 8 percent; The overall fiscal deficit of 6.6% of GDP down from 7.4%”, he announced.
