Ghana’s Current Account Gap to Reach 14.1% of GDP

Ghana's current account deficit is forecast to reach 14.1 percent of gross domestic product this year, and widen to 20.4 percent in 2010, the African Development Bank said in a report released in Accra today.

The government's budget deficit will probably widen to 10.2 percent of GDP next year from 9.7 percent in 2009, the report said. Inflation will probably average 7.9 percent this year and 7.2 percent in 2010, it added.

The current account deficit projection is based on the assumption that “donor funding will be reduced dramatically,” Hee-Sik Kim, the bank's principal research economist, told delegates to a conference.

In an interview later, Kim said the projection, made in early May, didn't take into account recent requests by the Ghanaian government to the World Bank and to the International Monetary Fund for credit of $1 billion. Both requests are currently being considered.