Bright Simons ‘mocks’ government’s GH¢1 trillion GDP projection

IMANI Africa’s vice president, Bright Simons, has made fun of the government’s estimates that GH¢1 trillion will be generated in GDP by 2024.

In his opinion, given the current status of the nation’s high exchange rate and inflation rate, that would not necessarily be considered an accomplishment.

Reacting to that provision in the 2024 budget, Bright Simons wrote via the X platform that the target, “Had a nice belly laugh with this. Rapid exchange rate depreciation and high inflation will indeed take a country’s GDP quickly over the “trillion” mark for sure. But it takes exceptional chutzpah to mount that as an achievement!” Btw, in 2005, Ghana’s GDP was 97 TRILLION! ).”

On November 15, 2023, Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta delivered the 2024 budget to parliament. He stated that the country’s GDP is expected to reach GH¢1 trillion for the first time in history during President Akufo-Addo’s final year in office.

He expressed optimism about the 2024 budget’s prospects and stated that the government will carry out growth plans and fiscal consolidation policies to meet this goal.

“Mr. Speaker, the 2024 budget is even more significant because we will cross the GH¢1 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) mark for the first time in our economic history. Let me repeat, Mr. Speaker, Ghana’s economy under President Akufo-Addo’s final year in office is projected to be valued at over GH¢1 trillion in 2024 from GH¢219.5 billion in 2016,” he said while presenting the 2024 budget in parliament on November 15, 2023.

He added: “It is important to recall that despite the ‘poly-crises’ since March 2020, we have, together, taken a GDP of GH¢219.5 billion in 2016 and almost quadrupled it. We are crossing the GH¢1 trillion GDP mark this year.”

The budget for 2024 has been presented in compliance with Section 21(3) of the PFM Act 2016 (of ACT 921) and Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. These provisions mandate that the minister furnish the government’s fiscal policy for the year as stated in the Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

The budget for this year is the first since Ghana, burdened with significant financial problems, agreed to sign up for the $3 billion lending facility for economic recovery.

The President’s final budget while in office is this one. It is anticipated to solve a number of economic challenges, including the nation’s high rates of inflation and volatile currency rates.

Checkout the post below:

https://x.com/BBSimons/status/1724932801181462904?s=20