The Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has mocked the government’s projections of attaining a Gross Domestic Product of GH¢1 trillion by 2024.

According to him, that would not necessarily be an achievement taking into consideration the current state of the country’s inflation rate and the high exchange rate levels.

Reacting to that provision in the 2024 budget, Bright Simons wrote via the X platform that the target, “Had a nice belly laugh with this. Rapid exchange rate depreciation and high inflation will indeed take a country's GDP quickly over the "trillion" mark for sure. But it takes exceptional chutzpah to mount that as an achievement!” Btw, in 2005, Ghana's GDP was 97 TRILLION! ).”

Delivering the 2024 budget before parliament on November 15, 2023, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, said President Akufo-Addo’s last year in office will see the projection of GH¢1 trillion Gross Domestic Product mark for the first time in Ghana’s history.

Expressing confidence in the prospects of the 2024 budget, he said the government will implement fiscal consolidation measures and growth strategies aimed at achieving this target.

“Mr. Speaker, the 2024 budget is even more significant because we will cross the GH¢1 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) mark for the first time in our economic history. Let me repeat, Mr. Speaker, Ghana's economy under President Akufo-Addo's final year in office is projected to be valued at over GH¢1 trillion in 2024 from GH¢219.5 billion in 2016,” he said while presenting the 2024 budget in parliament on November 15, 2023.

He added: “It is important to recall that despite the ‘poly-crises’ since March 2020, we have, together, taken a GDP of GH¢219.5 billion in 2016 and almost quadrupled it. We are crossing the GH¢1 trillion GDP mark this year.”

The presentation of the 2024 budget is in accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana and Section 21(3) of the PFM Act 2016 (of ACT 921) which requires the minister to provide the fiscal policy of the year contained in the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government.

This year's budget will be the first after Ghana signed on to the $3 billion loan facility for economic recovery after being saddled with high debt issues.

This year's budget is also the President's last budget in power. It is expected to address the country's high inflation rates and unstable exchange rates among other economic issues.

Had a nice belly laugh with this. ????????‍♂️????????‍♂️
Rapid exchange rate depreciation & high inflation will indeed take a country's GDP quickly over the "trillion" mark for sure. But it takes exceptional chutzpah to mount that as an achievement!
(Btw, in 2005, Ghana's GDP was 97 TRILLION! ????). pic.twitter.com/cN1jMic7Gk

— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) November 15, 2023