The Ghanaian economy is expected to record a 4.5 percent growth in 2016, little higher than what it achieved last year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s regional economic outlook report for 2016.
According to the IMF, the marginal growth will be influenced by the recent slowdown in commodity prices on the international market.
The Fund puts end of 2016 growth at 4.5 percent as against government’s target of 5.4 percent. The report states that ” Oil exporters, which include Angola and Nigeria, continue to face difficult economic conditions (with growth for oil exporters as a whole forecast to slow further to 2¼ percent this year from6 percent in 2014), but so do non-energy-commodity exporters, such as Ghana, South Africa, and Zambia”.
The Fund is projecting an end of year inflation target of 12.4 percent as against government’s target of 10.1 percent.
The Fund was also projecting that the debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio which stood at 71 percent at the end of December 2016, representing a GH¢100 billion, which will increase to 74 percent of GDP by the end of 2016.
The IMF regional outlook also should that end of year revenue will increase marginally compared to what government got last year.
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