Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has assured Ghanaians that the government is staying within its budget limits. During his mid-year budget review presentation in Parliament, he emphasised that the government has carefully managed its spending to remain within the 2024 Budget Appropriation.
Dr. Adam highlighted that by the end of June 2024, the government had exceeded its non-tax revenue target by 0.2 percent. He promised that any new spending will be carefully evaluated to ensure it does not undermine the recent economic improvements.
Total Revenue and Grants for the first half of 2024 however amounted to GH¢74.7 billion, 1.9 percent below the target of GH¢76.1 billion. Despite the shortfalls, he explained that the outcome shows a nominal year-on-year growth of 24.6 percent and constitutes 42.3 percent of the Budget’s Total Revenue for the year.
The revenue performance was mainly driven by strong performances in Non-oil Tax Revenue and Non-oil Non-Tax Revenue, which partly offset the shortfalls in oil receipts for the period, the Minister added. Total Expenditures (commitment) amounted to GH¢95.9 billion, below the budget target of GH¢104.8 billion.
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Dr. Amin Adam reaffirmed the government’s commitment to fiscal discipline and maintaining the economic gains achieved so far. “We are living within our means,” Dr. Adam said, noting that the country is on track to achieve a primary surplus of 0.5 percent of GDP by the end of the year.
He also reported significant progress in managing Ghana’s debt. He noted that the government successfully completed the second review of its Extended Credit Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), receiving a third disbursement of 360 million US dollars, totaling around 1.6 billion US dollars. Additionally, Ghana’s debt restructuring with official creditors, amounting to 5.1 billion US dollars, has resulted in 2.8 billion US dollars of debt relief. This means Ghana will not need to repay this debt from 2023 to 2026.
Furthermore, negotiations with Eurobond holders have led to the cancellation of 4.7 billion US dollars of debt and provided 4.4 billion US dollars in debt service relief between 2023 and 2026.
