Fiscal Scorecard: Fiscal Deficit Remains Above 5% [Part 2]

Part 1 of this series on the Public Debt states that its rate of accumulation and stock have deteriorated since 2016, despite recent significant fiscal endowments from three petroleum fields i.e., TEN, Jubilee, and Sankofa since 2017 — compared to only Jubilee.

Part II shows that the budget and fiscal balances have not improved, notably, with inclusion of bailout costs and exclusion of “offsets”. It continues to track the alleged end-2016 election-year budget overruns which successive Budgets now lower from 10.3 per cent (2017) to 9.3 per cent (2018) and 6.5 per cent (2020 Budget). These “offsets” neutralize an inflated end-2016 amount of GHc5.03 billion to avoid carrying it forward to 2017.

Read the full analysis by former Finance Minster, Seth Terkper, below: