The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta admitted
in his 2022 mid-year budget review he presented to Parliament on Monday July
25, that there are some challenges facing the economy, Spokesperson of the Vice
President, Dr Gideon Boako, has said.
Basically, he said, the
Finance Minister indicated that the sufferings and pains of Ghanaians are not
on the bind side of the government.
During the presentation on
Monday July 25, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that the state of the Ghanaian economy
is not in the best shape.
He recounted the challenges
Ghanaians are going through due to the impact of the warfare between Russia and
Ukraine as well as Covid.
“Towards 2022 Russia
invaded Ukraine, a situation that worsened the already weakened global supply
chain exacerbated by high conditions.
“These have had a debilitating
toll on the cost and standard of living of our people. Mr Speaker, food prices
are rising, fuel and transport fares are up, the cost of borrowing for
businesses and for households has increased, the cedi has depreciated and the
economic outlook has dipped significantly.”
He further admitted that
these are difficult times for the government especially his Ministry.
“The state of affairs is
quite a painful one for me to report to you, it is hard to see our people
lament about the prices of basic commodities, these are difficult times for
government and indeed, for the Finance Minister.”
Contributing to a
discussion on the presentation, Dr Gideon Boako who is also an economist said
“Basically, the Finance Minister seized the opportunity to make some honest
admissions and I think this is keen at this point where Ghanaians are reeling
under the effects of Russia Ukraine war.
“The global economic
circumstances and things have changed, prices have risen, people are finding it
quite difficult to survive , government need to share in the pain, here you may
say pain sharing and let people understand that whatever Ghanaians are going
through, it is not on the blind side of government. I think the Finance
Minister did that so well,” he said on Citi TV Monday July 25.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com