The government has spent less than its planned expenditure target from January to July. This was contained in the July 2026 Monetary Policy Report, which provided an overview of developments in government expenditure and other key economic indicators during the period under review.

It was released on July 22 after the Monetary Policy Committee's 131st meeting.

The report indicates that the government spent about 16.4% less than the intended expenditure of about GH¢175.9 billion between January and July 2026, when its actual expenditure was about GH¢147.1 billion.

This indicates that government expenditure undershot its target by GH¢28.855 billion, or about 16.4%, in the first seven months of 2026, with total spending and net lending reaching GH¢147.077 billion against a programmed target of GH¢175.932 billion.

The shortfall in government spending indicates that the government spent less on several major expenditure categories, including compensation of employees, interest payments, grants to other government units and capital expenditure.

The report showed varying trends across expenditure items, with some recording significant year-on-year growth despite falling short of their budgetary targets.

A case in point is capital expenditure, which increased significantly against the same period last year; however, interest payments declined.

The figures show how much of its planned expenditure the government actually spent between January and July 2026, including salaries, debt payments, transfers to public institutions and infrastructure projects.

Also, the government spent GH¢50.553 billion on employee compensation between January and July 2026, which was GH¢2.390 billion below the programmed target of GH¢52.943 billion, representing a shortfall of approximately 4.5%.

Though the government spent less on salaries than it had planned for 2026, it still spent more than it did a year earlier, with compensation costs rising by 12.6% compared with January to July 2025.

The report further indicated that compensation of government employees accounted for 35.2 % of domestic revenue mobilised during the period.

Expenditure on goods and services amounted to GH¢5.482 billion, below the target of GH¢7.897 billion.

Despite recording another shortfall in goods and services expenditure, spending under this category recorded a year-on-year growth of 63.4 %, according to the report.

Total interest payments amounted to GH¢25.171 billion during the period, compared with the budget target of GH¢34.117 billion.

The outturn was also 12.3 percent lower than the GH¢28.686 billion recorded during the corresponding period in 2025.

The report also revealed that the decline was mainly attributable to lower domestic interest payments and the front-loading of some Eurobond payments at the end of 2025.

The Eurobond payments made in late 2025 had originally been programmed for 2026, meaning that settling some of those obligations earlier shifted the timing of the expenditure away from the period under review.

Grants to other government units totalled GH¢30.611 billion, falling below the programmed target of GH¢35.866 billion.

The amount also represented a year-on-year decline of 1.6 percent, according to the July 2026 Monetary Policy Report.

Transfers and grants to other government units, which help fund the operations of public institutions, also fell below the amount budgeted for the first seven months of 2026.

Capital expenditure, which covers spending on infrastructure and other development projects, amounted to GH¢24.228 billion, equivalent to 1.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Although capital spending increased by 157.9% compared with the same period in 2025, it remained 25% below the government’s target for the period.

Other expenditure totalled GH¢9.283 billion, falling 13.4% short of the target.

The report also compared this amount with spending in the corresponding period of 2025, although the previous year's figure requires clarification in the published data.

Overall, government expenditure and net lending amounted to GH¢147.077 billion between January and July 2026, below the programmed target of GH¢175.932 billion.

The shortfall was recorded across several major spending categories, including employee compensation, goods and services, interest payments, grants to other government units and capital expenditure.

However, spending patterns differed compared with the same period in 2025. Employee compensation increased by 12.6%, while expenditure on goods and services rose by 63.4%. Capital expenditure recorded the largest increase, rising by 157.9%.

In contrast, interest payments fell by 12.3%, while transfers and grants to other government units declined by 1.6%.