The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has once again acknowledged the country's economic difficulties.

However, this time around, he did not apologise for the situation as he had done during his appearance before the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee on Censure at Parliament House on Friday, November 18.

Instead, he noted that the economic hardship was as a result of global happenings.

https://myjoyonline.com/ofori-atta-says-im-truly-sorry-for-economic-hardship/

In his address during the 2023 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Monday, July 31, he said “Mr. Speaker, I will be the first to admit that it has been an extremely difficult year for our country and our citizens.”

According to him, the economic crises emanate from fundamental and systemic weaknesses that the country must boldly confront.

This, in his view, include the following;

1. Our low revenue to GDP ratio;
2.  Our high demand and dependence on imports, including food products that can easily be produced here;
3. Our inefficient power management;
4. Lack of robust expenditure and commitment control systems to secure our efficient public service delivery;
5. The numerous statutory funds with expenditure and economic governance issues; and
6. Weak SOE governance.

He added that government is working towards addressing the aforementioned issues.

“Most of the structural reforms we proposed in the (Programme for Economic Growth) PC-PEG, with which we secured an IMF programme, are geared towards addressing these fundamental issues,” he said.

In a related development, he has stated that the Ghanaian economy is showing signs of recovery from its recent struggles.

Read also: Economy showing signs of recovery.

The Minister said the economy has exhibited great signs in the last six months, noting that government will not be seeking a supplementary budget.

“Mr. Speaker, for the first six months of the year, we continue making progress to exceed our non-oil revenue targets for the year. We have seen improvements in non-oil tax revenue collection despite some noticeable shortfalls in VAT.”