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The Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has recalled the severe economic hardship Ghanaians went through under the previous NPP government, describing it as an economic meltdown with a heavy human cost.

Presenting the 2027 Budget, Dr. Forson painted a grim picture of the state of the economy by the end of 2022.

He said inflation reached 54.1 percent, the primary balance stood at a deficit of 4.3 percent of GDP, the IMF debt sustainability analysis put Ghana’s debt at over 100 percent of GDP, and gross international reserves had fallen to less than three weeks of import cover.

He said although the numbers describe the scale of the meltdown, they do not fully capture the human cost.

According to the Minister, the crisis affected every household and business.

He said it imposed severe hardship on families, made food too expensive, raised transport fares and the cost of medicine, diminished pensions and savings, and collapsed businesses through high interest rates and rapid cedi depreciation.

“Families were forced to make impossible choices: postpone education, housing and healthcare,” Dr. Forson said.

He added that the debt restructuring imposed painful and crude haircuts on households, pension funds, banks, businesses and investors.

By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme