Ghana’s dramatic fiscal turnaround has earned praise from Data and Policy Analyst Alfred Appiah, who says the country’s next big test is sustaining the gains while expanding productive sectors and creating meaningful jobs.
Alfred Appiah says Ghana’s fiscal performance was impressive in its own right but became even more remarkable when compared with other Sub-Saharan African economies.
Citing the latest World Bank Africa Economic Update, Ghana’s fiscal deficit plunged from 8.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2024 to 1.2% in 2025, representing a 6.9-percentage-point improvement.
The decline was the largest among countries in the region, with Burkina Faso recording the second-biggest improvement of four percentage points.
Ghana also recorded one of the region’s sharpest reductions in public debt, with the debt-to-GDP ratio falling from 70.3% in 2024 to 48.8% in 2025. The 21.5-percentage-point decline was the third-largest in the region, behind Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Amid the turnaround, the analyst credited Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson and his team for the achievement, saying they deserved recognition for the fiscal consolidation that delivered the results.
“Ghana’s fiscal turnaround is impressive on its own. It is even more impressive against the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. Ato Forson and his team deserve their flowers,” he noted.
However, the analyst cautioned that the real challenge now is ensuring that the impressive numbers translate into stronger productive sectors and better employment opportunities.
Reducing the deficit and public debt, he says, is an important step towards restoring fiscal credibility. But the long-term value of that progress will depend on whether it creates room for sustainable economic growth, business expansion and job creation.
As many other analysts have contended, fiscal consolidation must go hand in hand with efforts to strengthen agriculture, manufacturing and other productive activities that can generate jobs and broaden the country’s economic base.
The World Bank projects that Ghana’s fiscal deficit will widen to 2.2% of GDP in 2026 and 2.9% in 2027, suggesting that preserving the gains could become more challenging.
He says, “The challenge now is sustaining this performance while growing the productive sectors of the economy and creating meaningful employment.”
For Alfred Appiah, Ghana’s fiscal turnaround may have earned it regional bragging rights. However, the daunting challenge is turning fiscal discipline into a stronger economy that creates opportunities for ordinary Ghanaians.
