Having been among the continent’s fastest-growing economies on the back of an oil-fuelled boom, Ghana has cut its growth target for this year and revised its forecast for inflation and budget deficit upwards as a result of slowing commodity revenues and high current spending. Ghana’s forecasts for 2014 are by any comparison still robust, but they have highlighted some cyclical hurdles ahead. In an economic update released in July, Finance Minister Seth Terkper said GDP growth for 2014 was now estimated at 7.1% instead of 8% previously. He added that the budget deficit for the full year would climb to 8.8% instead of the initially targeted 8.5%, well below the double-digit rates of a few years ago but still higher than expected. The minister has requested parliamentary approval for an additional GHS3.1bn ($837m) in spending on top of the original 2014 budget of GHS34.9bn ($9.43bn). More worryingly, the updated outlook also included a higher forecast for inflation, at about13% inst...