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Ghana will not meet budget deficit target- Terkper

Finance Minister Seth Terkper attributed this to the low oil output, high spending on elections and the energy-industry debts of the country.

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Terkper attributed this to the low oil output, high spending on elections and the energy-industry debts of the country.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra Terkper said Ghana’s shortfall in 2015 was 6.3 percent of GDP.

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“The higher deficit was on account of FPSO shutdowns resulting in lower crude and gas output,” he said, referring to the outage in the second quarter of an offshore oil field operated by Tullow Oil Plc.”

He explained that the extra money set aside for election 2016 and the restructuring of debts accumulated by state-owned energy companies were higher than initially planned.

Earlier, the Ghana Association of Bankers said that power utilities had arrears of 2.6 billion cedis ($617 million) of loans when the government started payments.

The budget deficit from 2012 to 2014 has exceeded 10 percent of GDP.

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The cedi weakened 1.8 percent to 4.21 per dollar on December 20, 2016, bringing its loss since January to 5.2 percent.

The yield on Ghana’s dollar bond maturing in 2023 fell one basis point to 8.345 percent.

Ghana’s sinking fund, created for the payment of debts, has a balance of $300 million.

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