Ghana’s economy is now expected to grow slower than was originally projected when the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta presented his 2019 budget last year.
He predicted that the economy will grow at a rate of 7.6 percent but on Monday when he presented the 2019 mid-year budget, he said a number of factors have conspired to slow the pace of the economy’s growth.
The economy is now expected to grow at 7.1 percent owing to the pressures from the poor performance of the local currency against the dollar as well as poor domestic revenue mobilisation.
According to the Minister, the growth rate was also made slower by the government’s own faster spending relative to a slower revenue mobilisation performance.
“Another reason for the rate slowing is also due to the crystallisation of energy sector-related contingent liabilities which were not programmed into the 2019 Budget and expenditures on regional security-related concerns as well as lower than projected crude oil and gas volumes,” the Finance Minister stated.
