Following the prospects in Ghana’s medium-term macroeconomic and financial outlook, government has revised its growth targets for the rest of the year. This was made known in Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Mohammed Amin Adam (MP, Karaga), when he appeared before the House to present a mid-year review of the 2024 Budget on Tuesday. The Minister, upbeat about the progress Ghana has made in its implementation of the IMF-supported Post-COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG), said the programme has reinforced the country’s commitment to navigate through global uncertainties and address domestic challenges.

He said, “Government’s unwavering dedication to maintaining macroeconomic stability, promoting investment, and enhancing social protection programs continues re-echo our objective of building back better.”

According to the minister, the revision of the 2024 fiscal framework indicates that primary balance on a commitment basis remains unchanged at the targeted surplus of 0.5% of GDP, in line with the PC-PEG objectives, he stated. Therefore, total expenditure on commitment basis has seen a revision downward by 2.1% to GH¢219,749 million from the original budget projection of GH¢226,681 million on the back of interest payments, while revising total revenue and grants upward by 0.5% to GH¢177,220 million from the 2024 Budget target of GH¢176,414 million.

The macro-fiscal targets being revised include:

1. overall Real GDP rate revised upwards from 2.8% to 3.1%;
2. non-oil Real GDP growth rate of revised upwards from 2.1% to 2.8%;
3. growth in GDP deflator scaled down from 20.2% to 17.5%;
4. nominal overall GDP has been revised from GH¢1,050 billion to GH¢1,020 billion;
5. end-period headline inflation to remain unchanged at 15%;
6. primary balance on commitment basis maintained at a surplus of 0.5%; and
7. gross international reserves (including oil funds and encumbered/pledged assets to cover not less than 3 months of imports.

In the medium-term however the government was confident that it will continue to build on its medium-term debt management strategy implemented in the first half of the year to focus on an appropriate financing mix aimed at supporting fiscal consolidation without compromising macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability.