Time to tell the truth, tough times lie ahead of us – Ken Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that the current economic crisis will worsen in the coming years. This according to him is because all international rating institutions are projecting so. He said this is the time to be brutal with the truth.

He made the disclosure at a post-budget workshop on the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government for the 2023 financial year over the weekend at Ho.

He said the projections of the global economy in 2023 and beyond put inflation higher than seen in several decades.

Global growth, he said, is projected to slow down from an estimated 3.2% in 2022 to 2.7% in 2023 and pointed out that this has been reset four times and is still downward.

According to him, if there ever was an economic crisis, this is one of them.

He lamented how the remarkable turnaround the government achieved prior to the COVID pandemic between 2017 and 2019 has been derailed.

Macroeconomic stability, he noted is largely restored during the time and growth rebounded strongly with the government investing about GH¢28.3 billion in growth-enhancing and employment creation flagship programmes and social interventions.

He assured that the 2023 Budget has therefore been prepared to restore macroeconomic stability, promote fiscal and debt sustainability and build resilience for faster economic recovery and protect the poor and vulnerable.

He called for creativity and changes in the rules as the government confronts the current economic crisis.

Government, he said, is very clear on the technical interventions but argued in order to rise and build there must be a common language in working together to create resilience to overcome the crisis.

He appealed to MPs to imbibe the spirit of patriotism and work together in unity to help revive the economy