Majority Leader and caretaker Minister for Finance Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stated that the NPP led by President Nana Akufo-Addo are better managers of the economy and better protectors of the public purse.
Delivering the 2021 Budget statement and Economic Policy in Parliament, he said the debt stock under the NPP-Government has minimized compared to that of the previous administration, making the current government better managers of the economy and better protectors of the public purse.
He added that “The total public debt has increased from GH¢122 billion (56.9% of GDP) in 2016 to GH¢ 291.6 billion (76.1% of GDP) at the end of December 2020. Included in the debt stock and the debt/GDP ratio at the end of 2020 are the following non-recurrent burdens that we had to deal with as a matter of urgency:
· Fiscal Impact of COVID-19 – GH¢ 19.7 billion;
· Cost of Financial Sector Clean up – GH¢ 21 billion;
· Cost of Excess Capacity Charges paid to IPPs – GH¢ 12 billion;
· The impact of the reduction in growth from an average of 7% (2017-2019) to 0.9% in 2020.”
According to him, we are not fully out of the woods yet with the ongoing COVID-19 second wave. As such, fiscal consolidation has to be carefully balanced with the provision of some targeted fiscal stimulus to cushion the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and the economy which we aim to achieve through the Ghana CARES “Obaatan pa” Programme.
The presentation of the budget is normally done by the Finance Minister on the authority of the President.
This year, however, the change has become necessary due to the absence of the Finance Minister-designate, Ken Ofori-Atta who is seeking medical treatment outside the country for post-Covid-19 related implications.
