The Finance Minister on Monday announced that Ghana may lose abouth GHS9.5 billion in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation that may move the 2020 budget deficit to over 7 percent.
This will be 2.5 percent of Ghana’s revised GDP.
“Speaker, the total estimated fiscal impact from the shortfall in petroleum receipts, shortfall import duties, the shortfall in other tax revenues, the cost of the preparedness plan, and the cost of Coronavirus Alleviation Programme is GHS9,505 billion,” the Minister said when he appeared in Parliament.
Ultimately, there will be a “fiscal gap of GHS11.4 billion,” the Minister added.
Import duties, for example, will fall short of target by GHS808 million for the 2020 fiscal year, the Minister indicated.
The effect of the virus on the economy will worsen because Ghana began a two-week partial lockdown of Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa on Monday, March 30, 2020.
The pandemic will also take a toll on Ghana’s GDP growth.
Mr. Ofori-Atta said a preliminary analysis of the impact of the virus “on the real sector shows that the 2020 projected real GDP growth rate could decline from 8 percent to 2.6 percent with an outbreak and 1.5 percent with a partial lock-down.”
Source: citinewsroom.com