Ghana's 2027 budget: $10 billion in investment over four years
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on MyJoyOnline
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson is due to present the 2027 budget on 12 November, centred on a four-year $10 billion investment programme. According to economist Dennis Nsafoah, writing in MyJoyOnline, three questions arise: how much of these funds is genuinely new, how the larger deficit will be financed, and whether this is compatible with building up foreign exchange reserves.
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson is due to present Ghana's 2027 budget on 12 November. It provides for a $10 billion investment programme over four years, in infrastructure, agriculture and industry, under the name 'new economy', according to Dennis Nsafoah, in a column published by MyJoyOnline.
Dennis Nsafoah welcomes the shift from macroeconomic stabilisation to investment-led growth. He nevertheless raises three questions: how much of these funds is genuinely new, how the larger budget deficit will be financed, and how this programme fits with the goal of accumulating foreign exchange reserves.
The government wants to lower its primary surplus target from 1.5% of GDP to 0.5% in 2027, which frees up a margin of about 1% of GDP, to which would be added 0.5% of extra revenue. However, the 2026 budget already planned investment spending of 4.6% of GDP for 2027. If the entire margin went to investment, that ratio would reach 6.1%, according to the same economist.
President Mahama had already put a figure of $9 billion on an employment programme on 7 November. Ato Forson, for his part, judged the traditional economic model to be failing on 9 November.
