Blog – Institute for Fiscal Studies Ghana

December 1, 2018

Ghana’s Financial and Insurance Sector is in Crisis

Ghana’s Financial and Insurance Sector is in Crisis Ghana’s financial system underwent rapid growth and major transformation over the last two decades, which brought new opportunities and risks. The government implemented reforms to enhance the financial system’s resilience to shocks and its contribution to economic growth. The reforms were also aimed at strengthening the regulatory and supervisory framework and financial infrastructures. Despite these reforms, financial stability risks have heightened considerably in the last few years, with high nonperforming loans, under-capitalization, supervision and regulatory weaknesses, and governance lapses. As a result, the country’s financial sector is in crisis, with most Ghanaians […]

August 18, 2022

IFS’ Assessment of the Government of Ghana’s Fiscal Consolidation Efforts in the Face of the Rapidly Deteriorating Macroeconomic Environment

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta presented the mid-year review of the 2022 budget statement to Parliament on Monday, July 25, 2022. As expected, the review contained revisions to the 2022 macroeconomic forecasts, in light of economic developments since the 2022 budget was announced in November last year. More importantly, it revised the 2022 fiscal projections to take account of budgetary outcomes in the first half of the year, aimed at putting Ghana on a fiscal consolidation path, as a means of addressing the rising macroeconomic instability the country is currently witnessing. Having registered large fiscal deficits in the past decade, which […]

March 3, 2023

The 2023 Budget Statement And Ghana’s Current Debt Restructuring Program: Ifs’ AssessmentAnd Recommendations

The 2023 budget statement delivered to Parliament by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on 24th November, 2022 came against the backdrop of a raging macroeconomic crisis, which continues to inflict significant economic pain on the citizenry. It was thus expected that the budget would outline strong policy measures and targets that respond appropriately and adequately to the crisis. This assessment examines the extent to which the budget fulfils this need. It also examines the country’s current debt restructuring program, the Debt Exchange Program, and provides recommendations as to how best the government can reshape its policies to achieve better fiscal […]

June 15, 2023

IFS’ review of the government of Ghana’s 2023–2026 extended credit facility-supported program with the international monetary fund (IMF)1

The Ghanaian economy has been in crisis since 2022. In addition to the government struggling to pay its bills and service its debts, the macroeconomy has been volatile, with extremely high inflation and exchange rate depreciation rates, while business confidence has been weakening and economic growth has been falling. For example, year-on-year consumer price inflation rate, which respectively averaged 9.9% and 10.0% in 2020 and 2021, and which stood at 12.6% at the end of 2021, jumped to as high as 29.8% in June 2022. By the end of December 2022, the year-on-year consumer price inflation rate had skyrocketed to a whopping 54.1%. Also, annual depreciation rate of the cedi against the US dollar, which respectively stood at only 3.9% and 4.1% in 2020 and 2021, sharply increased to as high as 30.0% in 2022.