A ranking member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has predicted that the economy will not smile at Ghanaians in the coming days in 2023.
Mr Forson forecasts that times will be extremely hard, employment will be lost, inflation will be high as well as a general increment in prices of goods and services.
In a detailed post he made on his official Facebook platform, he listed ten woes he believes Ghana might not escape from.
Below is his prediction:
1. This year, Ghana’s economy will record one of the worst non-oil GDP growths due to the impact of debt restructuring and a plethora of extremely tough fiscal and monetary policies.
2. The haircut on domestic bonds and Eurobond is expected to adversely impact the health of the banking sector, local businesses, and individuals! Also, Bilateral debt restructuring will lead to the government’s foreign-financed projects being abandoned.
3. Unemployment will worsen due to the freeze on employment, debt restructuring, poor business climate, and massive austerity.
4. Ghana will default in the payment of interest and principal on domestic bonds, Eurobonds, and most of our bilateral loans in 2023.
These will be compounded by the ff:
5. Expected layoffs from the financial sector due to the impact of the debt restructuring and expected layoffs from gov’t foreign-financed projects.
6. The complete reversal of discount on import values on goods and vehicles coupled with the introduction of the 2.5 % INCREASE IN VAT and other taxes on businesses will keep prices of goods and services high, and, in some cases, higher than current prices!
7. Also, the government’s policy of automatic adjustment of electricity tariffs will exacerbate the high cost of living in 2023
8. Inflation is expected to be above 30% for the most part of 2023.
9. Government’s gold for oil policy will not make any major impact on the price of petroleum products.
10. The cedi will inevitably depreciate further, from Jan to June. before a possible IMF board approval in Q2, 2023.