Ghana government to implement regular utility and petroleum price adjustments

Though there is strong investor appetite presently and favourable external environment to help raise funds for productive use in Ghana, the country is still faced with some risks which include the continues Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), low revenue performance, rising domestic interest of debt service cost and non-adjustment of utility prices, the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkepr has said.

Taking his turn at the Meet the Press series in Accra, Terkper said, in view of this, there will be more regular adjustment of utility and petroleum prices in the country.

This will also help government to meet its 2013 fiscal target, he said.

Terkper said, “the cost of implementing SSSS is higher than anticipated. Ghana sometimes uses up to 60% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to pay wages which cannot be sustained.”

Government will issue a $1 billion sovereign bond between mid to end of July, 2013 to take care of payment of counterpart funds for capital projects, capital expenditures approved in the 2013 Budget (with priority given to self-financing projects) and refinancing of public debt to reduce the cost of borrowing.

By Pascal Kelvin Kudiabor