Govt expenditure reaches GHS101.21bn in first Half of 2024 – Bank of Ghana

The Bank of Ghana’s July 2024 Monetary Policy Report has disclosed that total expenditures, including arrears clearance and discrepancies, for the first half of 2024 amounted to GH¢101.21 billion.

This figure accounts for 9.6% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Despite a 66.5% year-on-year rise, the expenditure fell 3.4% short of the GH¢104.77 billion target, which represented 10% of GDP.

Compensation

Compensation for employees, covering wages, salaries, pensions, gratuities, and other wage-related expenses, totaled GH¢29.30 billion.

This amount was slightly below the target of GH¢29.96 billion, falling short by 2.2%, despite a 48.4% increase compared to the previous year.

In terms of fiscal space, employee compensation accounted for 39.5% of the domestic revenue generated during the review period.

Goods and services

Expenditure on Goods and Services amounted to GH¢5.77 billion, exceeding the projected target of GH¢4.56 billion by 26.6%.

However, this figure was lower than the GH¢6.25 billion recorded during the same period in 2023, showing a year-on-year decline of 7.6%.

Interest payments

Total interest payments of GH¢19.03 billion fell below the envisioned target of GH¢26.35 billion for the review period.

This outturn compares with GH¢13.39 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2023.

The decreased interest payment was mainly on account of a partial freeze on debt service because of the debt restructuring programme by the government to help resolve Ghana’s fiscal and debt vulnerabilities.

Grants

Grants to various government entities, including the National Health Fund, Education Trust Fund, Road Fund, Energy Fund, District Assemblies Common Fund, Retention of IGFs, transfers to GNPC, Ghana Infrastructure Fund, and other designated funds, totaled GH¢19.70 billion, exceeding the target of GH¢17.55 billion.

This represents a positive deviation of 12.2% and an impressive year-on-year increase of 83.4%.

Capital expenditure

Capital expenditure for the period under review was GH¢13.91 billion (1.3% of GDP), lower than the programmed target of GH¢19.13 billion (1.8% of GDP) by 27.2 percent.

This outturn represented a year-on-year growth of 107.8%.

Other expenditure

Other expenditure for the second quarter of 2024 was GH¢12.98 billion, 95.1% above the target of GH¢6.65billion.

Out of this, the energy sector payment shortfalls totalled GH¢10.60 billion (1.0% of GDP), higher than the programmed target of GH¢2.84 billion (0.3% of GDP).

This contributed to the resulting positive deviation of 95.1%. This outturn of GH¢12.98 billion dwarfed the GH¢3.76 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2023.

Source: tigpost.com