The 2021 budget statement presented to parliament by the leader of government business Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has pegged Ghana’s fiscal deficit at 13.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This deficit, according to the budget, includes the cost of the financial sector cleanup up.
“The fiscal deficit including the financial sector cost for 2020 is 13 .7 percent of GDP,” the budget said adding that “it was financed from both domestic and external sources.
Regarding Ghana’s debt stock, the budget said the total debt rose from 122billion in 2019 to a 291.6billion as of the end of December 2020.
The debt includes the cost of the financial sector cleanup, the majority leader added.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu further assured Ghanaians that there is no cause for alarm in the face of the coronavirus crisis, which hit the country in March 2020.
He said the measures taken by the government so far make Ghana better positioned to recover economically from the pandemic.
“Government succeeded in protecting virtually all jobs and incomes in the public sector. The people of Ghana have witnessed since the coronavirus pandemic ahead of the rest of the world, a leadership that is responsible, creative, courageous, decisive, and above all very caring.
He said the policies such as the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) have seen major results recorded “that have made it easier for people to cope with this unprecedented crisis”.
For him, the measures taken were to save lives, protect livelihoods and safeguard economic activities and they did just that.
“Mr. Speaker, today Ghana is better positioned to recover and rebuild an even more resilient economy. Nobody says we know how to do it but also because the grace of God has been assured for this journey.”
