Ghana’s Finance Minister is expected to present a review of the mid-year budget before Parliament on Thursday, July 23, 2020, Citi Business News reports.
In accordance with Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 92), the Finance Minister is mandated to provide Parliament on the strategies and roadmaps as to how the government intends to deal with the effects of the coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.
Ghana’s budget deficit for 2020 is likely to double the legal limit as a result of the adverse impact of Coronavirus on the economy which sees an undoing of the fiscal discipline that was supposed to curb financial bailouts from other countries.
Ken Ofori-Atta in a recent interview with Bloomberg explained Ghana’s fiscal gap is forecasted to widen beyond 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from an adjusted outlook in March of 7.8%.
Earlier, Mr Ofori-Atta on March 30, 2020, before Parliament disclosed Ghana’s economy will lose some GH¢9.5 billion as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
According to him, this will represent 2.5 percent of Ghana’s revised GDP
For next week, the minister is expected to provide Parliament with a roadmap as to how the government plans to pay a GH¢10 billion loans granted by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
Additionally, a roadmap is also needed for the US$219 million transferred from the Ghana Stabilization Fund to the Contingency Fund to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
Source: B&FT online
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