The Minister for Finance has revealed that government’s expenditure exceeded total revenue generated from January to June this year, by GH¢22.3bn.

Addressing Parliament on Thursday, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, stated that total revenue, including grants, accrued by government was GH¢28.3 billion while total expenditure including the clearance of arrears, amounted to GH¢50.6 billion.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta made the submission when he presented the 2021 Mid-Year review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government and Supplementary Estimate for the financial year.

According to the Finance Minister, the state failed to meet its revenue target but managed to spend less than what was projected for expenditure. An amount of GH¢32.4 billion and GH¢55.1 billion were projected for revenue and expenditure respectively in the first half of the year.

The country’s fiscal deficit stood at GH¢22.3 billion. He, however, noted that the deficit was financed from both foreign and domestic sources.

“Net foreign financing of GH¢15.2billion constituted 68.3 per cent of the total financing and included inflows from Eurobond proceeds. On the other hand, total domestic financing amounted to GH¢7.1billion, representing 31.7 per cent of total financing,” he added.

Responding to earlier concerns by the Minority in Parliament on the public debt stock, Mr Ofori-Atta explained the country has recorded an increase.

“The total public debt stock, as a percentage of GDP, increased from 76.1 per cent at the end of December 2020, to 77.1 per cent of GDP at the end of June 2021,” he said.

He blamed the rise in debt stock on the Covid-19 pandemic, Eurobond issuance in April, contingent liabilities and front-loading of financing to meet cash flow requirements.