President Nana Akufo-Addo has revealed that the global Coronavirus pandemic threatened to derail the economic gains made by his government over the last three years.
He made this known in his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Tuesday, January 5, 2021.
According to him, “its (Covid19) impact has led to the revision in GDP growth for 2020, from 6.8% to 0.9%, and later to 1.9% to reflect significant slowdown in economic activities as a consequence of the effects of Covid19 on lives and livelihoods.”
He noted that at the end of 2019, the economy was characterized by strong growth in response to implementation of government flagship programmes, single digit inflation, reduced fiscal deficits with three consecutive years of primary surplus, relatively stable exchange rate, significant improvement in the current account with three consecutive years of trade surpluses, strong foreign exchange reserve buffers, and markedly reduced lending rates.
By Melvin Tarlue