[ 2016-12-04 ]

Gov’t targets 8% growth rate next year
President John Mahama has once again assured the
nation that the economy will recover after it
increased revenues and took tough measures to
limit public sector wages and spending.

Some of the measures were taken as part of the
programme with the International Monetary Fund.

According to President Mahama, the economy is
getting back on the path of growth as a result of
a sustainable home-grown policy that has been
adopted by the government.

With the current trend, the President explained
that the World Bank had projected a growth rate of
between seven and eight per cent in the next two
to three years.

"We were faced with a very unbalanced economy and
we have taken bold measures .... All the
macroeconomic indicators are pointing in the right
direction," Mahama said, adding that growth would
rise above 8 percent in 2017 from a projected 4.1
percent this year.

He made the pronouncement at the maiden Ghana
Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and National
Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) Presidential
Debate in Accra.

The country’s exports gold, oil and cocoa but
has suffered from a slump in global commodity
prices and macro-economic instability in the form
of inflation that stood at 15.8 percent last
month, an elevated budget deficit and high
unemployment.

Similarly, Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, has
said that the main propeller of growth next year
will be the oil and gas sector with the Jubilee
oil field expected to take center stage.

Oil production in Ghana’s first oil field,
Jubilee, was pegged at over 90,000 barrels per day
when running optimum level but technical hitches
have since prohibited the field from achieving
full production capacity.

In spite of Mr. Terkper’s optimism, he admitted
that the decline in the crude oil prices has led
to the country realising a deceleration in the
sector, a situation which is likely to affect
production from the Tweneboah-Enyerra-Ntomme (TEN)
fields and the Sankofa Fields.

Source - Starrfm

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