Ahead of the handover of power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Finance Minister Seth Terkper has reiterated that his government will be leaving behind a stabilized economy for the incoming administration.
Mr. Terkper said this was achieved despite the significant challenges that confronted the economy in the form of the power crisis and the rough global economic terrain, which affected interest rate, gold and cocoa prices, which are two of Ghana’s major export commodities.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, he said his government had “managed to bring the economy to a point of stabilization and where, as we have been indicating, we have seen a clear turnaround.
Growth is increasing; the Cedi has also stabilized considerably since last year. We have seen inflation begin to come down.” Mr. Terkper also spoke highly of the outgoing government’s handling of debt, despite the country’s debt stock rising as high as GHc 112.4 billion.
The Finance Minister indicated that, the current debt to GDP ratio is about 71 percent, whiles noting that, “for the first time in over 12 years, since the declaration of HIPC [Ghana assuming the status of a Highly Indebted Poor Country], we have seen the rate at which we actually accumulate debt decline.”
Investments setting the tone for economic growth
Mr. Terkper also cited investments in oil and gas, which he said will be fueling the growth of the economy.
“We have made significant investments also in oil and gas, in particular, the World Bank partial loan guarantee… Ghana will start a robust growth as a result of these investments.”
According to Mr. Terkper, these investments have seen the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) at the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN) field start the production of crude oil along with the expected production of gas from the third FPSO at the offshore Cape Three Point Sankofa development, which is near completion.
“This, together with the growth in the services sector, is definitely going to ensure more stability for the economy,” he stated.
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