Cabinet, led by President Nana Akufo-Addo, last week held a three-day retreat to discuss the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic on the country’s economy.
Cabinet members were instructed by the president to, in the three-day long meeting, present data on how the pandemic had and continues to affect their sectors and what it would take to recover from the slow down occasioned by the pandemic.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, at a press briefing on Tuesday, disclosed the decisions taken by the President and Cabinet after the meeting.
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The decisions taken were as follows:
- The Finance Minister is to ensure that macro-fiscal slippage occasioned by the pandemic are reduced to the barest minimum. Macro-fiscal slippage is as a result of massive cuts in national revenues due to global economic slowdown and reduction in trade and the need to expand some expenditure items to help contain the pandemic.
- Finance Minister is also tasked to put together a recovery programme to be submitted to parliament after prior approval from Cabinet, the programme is to outline how fiscal expansion can assist specific sectors of the economy to achieve a rebound.
- Despite hits across all sectors, priority is to be maintained on the various sectors: health, roads, education, social protection, security, food and agriculture, import substitution and industrial growth and security.