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ACCRA, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Ghana’s Finance Ministry revised up its 2020 development forecast on Wednesday and forecast a rebound to five.9% subsequent 12 months because the financial system recovers from its first contraction in virtually 4 a long time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The West African nation, a significant producer of gold, oil and cocoa, noticed gross home shrink 3.2% within the second quarter after a three-week lockdown in March pressured many companies to shut.
However decrease costs and a stabilised change charge have boosted enterprise optimism and led the ministry to anticipate development this 12 months of 1.9% versus an earlier estimate of 0.9%, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta mentioned in an deal with to parliament.
“Regardless of the set-backs from the pandemic, we’re on observe to get well,” he mentioned.
The ministry has additionally revised down its projected fiscal deficit for 2021 to eight.3% from 9.6% because of the anticipated pick-up in financial exercise, he mentioned.
(Reporting by Christian Akorlie Writing by Alessandra Prentice Enhancing by Bate Felix)
((alessandra.prentice@thomsonreuters.com; +380 44 244 9150; Reuters Messaging: alessandra.prentice.reuters.com@reuters.web))
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