'2016 GDP lowest in 15yrs; fiscal deficit worse' - Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that growth in Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016 has been the worst for the past 15 years.

Presenting the mid-year budget review to parliament on Monday, July 31, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that latest reports on the economy in the past year has resulted in the alteration of certain estimates by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

Mr Ofori-Atta observed that provisional data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) released in 2017 showed that the “real GDP growth for 2016 was 3.5 percent against the provisional estimate of 3.6 percent reported in the 2017 budget and lower than the 3.8 percent recorded for 2015, the lowest in over 15 years”.

The services sector had a growth of 5.7 per cent followed by agriculture, 3.0 per cent, and Industry 1.4 per cent adding, that “the economy we inherited was severely impaired”.

Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the “fiscal deficit was worse than previously estimated at 9.3 per cent of GDP compared to a provisional figure of 8.7 per cent of GDP on cash basis at the time of presenting the 2017 budget.”