Interest Payments dominated government expenditure for the first half of 2022, according to the 2022 Mid-Year Budget Revenue.

¢20.4 billion was spent by the government as interest on loans at the end of June 2022, representing 4.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This was higher than the targeted amount of ¢19.05 billion.

Compensation of Employees followed suit, amounting to ¢17.120 billion (3.4% of GDP), 4.5% below the budgetary provision of ¢17.921 billion (3.6% of GDP).

The Wage Bill constituted 88.6% of the total compensation and amounted to ¢15.168 billion.

Also, Capital Expenditure for the period amounted to ¢7.108 billion, representing 1.4% of GDP, against the target of ¢8.905 billion (1.8% of GDP).

Domestic Capital Expenditure recorded a deviation of 77.4% below, reflecting the cuts in discretionary spending approved by Cabinet.

An amount of ¢10.145 billion (2.0%of GDP) was accrued for transfer to statutory and earmarked funds, compared to a target of GH¢11.762 billion (2.3% of GDP).

Similarly, expenditure on the Use of Goods and Services for the period was ¢2.210 billion (0.4% of GDP) compared to the target of ¢3.732 billion (0.7% of GDP).

The apparent saving of 40.8% reflects the consolidation measures and the additional expenditure rationalisation measures for discretionary spending implemented for the 2022 fiscal year.

Other Expenditure amounted to ¢4.80 billion.

Government in the Mid-Year Budget Review revised its Total Expenditure including payments for the clearance of arrears downwards to ¢135.74 billion (22.9% of GDP), from the original budget projection of ¢137.52 billion (27.4% of GDP).

Again, total Revenue and Grants have been revised to ¢96.84 billion (16.4% of GDP) in 2022, from the 2022 Budget target of ¢100.51 billion (20.0% of GDP). This represented 3.7% reduction.

In the first quarter of 2022, interest payments hit ¢10.6 billion.