Acting Chief Executive Officer at Dalex Finance Mr Joe Jackson has said that indeed, the macroeconomic indicators are pointing in the right direction as indicated by the Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam in the mid-year budget presentation.
However, it is his view that there is a disconnect between the figures and what the people feel in their pockets.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, July 27, Mr. Joe Jackson explained what may be accounting for the inability of Ghanaians to feel the growth.
Corruption, he said, eats away about 40 percent of the public revenue that would have been injected into development projects. Therefore the economy will be growing but corruption is preventing development projects from taking place.
“You have to give the mid-year budget credit, every single macroeconomic indicator is trending in the right direction but you have to interpret the numbers.
“The numbers are truly trending in the right direction but there is a disconnect between the numbers and what we feel in our pockets.
“Corruption could be eating 40 percent of our public revenue away, so there could be growth in the economy, the figures are right but no development to show for due to corruption,” he said.
The Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam had said that the rate at which Ghana’s economy is growing exceeds their expectation.
He said that the 4.7 percent growth rate reported by the Ghana Statistical Service for the first quarter of 2024 exceeds the revised target of 3.1 percent;
Presenting the mid-year budget review in Parliament on Tuesday, July 23, he highlighted that inflation is declining.
“End-June inflation rate of 22.8 percent, a reduction of 31 percentage points since December, 2022, confirms the target threshold of +/-2 of 15 percent by end 2024 is possible.
