We started with a clear, decisive and deliberate program to, among other things, stabilize the economy, fix dumsor, fix the NHIS, fix the roads, clear the arrears, make education free and accessible, significantly enhance social protection for the vulnerable in society, industrialize our economy, tackle youth unemployment and empower farmers. – Bawumia
Between 2017-19 all the key economic indicators such as economic growth, agricultural growth, industry growth inflation, interest rates, 4 fiscal deficit, exchange rate depreciation, and trade balance were moving in the right direction. – Bawumia
However, between 2020 and 2022, we experienced severe challenges, triggered by the pandemic which brought the world and our country to a thundering halt. – Bawumia
We may be tired of hearing it but there is no avoiding the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war, resulted in the greatest economic depression in the world since the 1930s, with most countries recording negative GDP growth. – Bawumia
Supply chain disruptions and the rising price of oil resulted in major increases in the prices of fuel, freight, and food across the globe. – Bawumia
I believe it is worth pointing out that, in addition to the external factors, two major items of expenditure are critical to understanding the difficult economic situation we have faced. These are the banking sector cleanup and the energy sector excess capacity payments. – Bawumia
The three items (including Covid-19 expenditure) cumulatively amounted to GHC50.1 billion, and this was financed by borrowing. – Bawumia
There were many who predicted that we were going to end up like the situation in Sri Lanka with fuel shortages, food shortages, the inability to pay workers, dumsor, anarchy and chaos. Indeed, Ghanaians were hit by rising food prices, increased exchange rate depreciation, rising fuel prices, and rising transport fares. – Bawumia
Bondholders also saw a sharp decline in their net worth following the debt restructuring programme. We faced very challenging times. But with calm leadership and the support and understanding of the good people of Ghana, we weathered the storm. – Bawumia
The good news is that the data shows that the economy is recovering from the crisis we faced. Inflation has declined from 54% in January to 23% in December 2023. – Bawumia
What is remarkable is that notwithstanding the domestic and global crisis that we have experienced between 2020 and 2022, the economic performance as measured by the key economic indicators (such as GDP growth, Agricultural growth, industry growth, Trade Balance, Exchange rate depreciation, lending rates, Gross international reserves, and jobs) is better than that of the 2013-2016 period when there was no global crisis. – Bawumia
What is probably the most remarkable development in terms of the economy is that our government has created 2.1 million jobs between 2017 and 2022, notwithstanding the global economic crisis. – Bawumia
The public sector recruited 1.2 million people, while the private sector created 975,000 jobs (per SSNIT data). We recruited 100,000 more health workers, 100,000 more teachers, more than double the fire service personnel, etc. Our government has quite clearly created more jobs in seven years than any government. This is truly remarkable under the circumstances even though we still have to create more jobs. – Bawumia
We have undertaken major road construction and rehabilitation programs across the country (over 11,674 Km according to the Ministry of Roads and Highways). I am not aware of any government that has done as much in the roads sector since independence. – Bawumia
