PwC 2024 Mid-Year Budget Digest

“The economy’s recovery has been fast and strong.”

In our view, this broadly describes the posture of the Minister for Finance, when he appeared before Parliament on 23 July 2024 to present the mid-year review of the 2024 Fiscal Policy. Honourable Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, MP – the Minister for Finance – painted the now familiar context of a challenging global economic environment from which Ghana has not been spared. He sums up his speech by saying that Government is rebuilding trust, regaining policy credibility, restoring confidence, raising hope, and proving that quick recovery is possible... that growth with fiscal consolidation is possible.

The Minister’s comparison of the first halves (H1s) of the fiscal years of 2023 and 2024 suggests that the fiscal and economic performances in 2024 represent an improvement over 2023. In the words of the Finance Minister, “...these policies we have implemented are yielding the expected results. The economy is rebounding stronger than anticipated.”

The Minister attributed these results to the choices made by Government, the policies being implemented, as well as the speed, urgency, and support with which Government has executed key programmes (including growth-enhancing initiatives) in the first half of the year.

We agree with the Honourable Minister for Finance when he says of the statistics/data contained in his speech to Parliament that these point to a good recovery in the economy. However, for us, other citizens and/or businesses with a vested interest in Ghana’s long term economic prospects, a focus on short-term performance, is not sufficient.

We would urge Government not to overlook the long-term objective of both the PC-PEG and the IMF programme while touting what appears to be good recovery in the short term. If the difficult reforms we need to implement continue to get delayed because the timing does not seem suitable, we permit our problems to fester longer. In that case, our economy could revert to a state that may require a future Government to return to the IMF with cup in hand.