As Finance Minister Ken Offori Atta is set to appear before parliament on Monday to present the Mid-year budget review, Ghanaians are keen on what to expect in the budget review, amongst those expectant is Dominic Anarigide, an Economist.
Mr. Anarigide is calling for a major review of the government’s macro-economic targets. He spoke on A1 Radio.
According to him, the government has not been able to meet its revenue target. It has also failed to stabilise the economy because of the many challenges internal and external challenges.
Mr. Anarigede explained that, prior to the beginning of the year, government had predicted to end the year with an inflation of some 8 percent but as it stands now, it is obvious that, government will not meet that target and therefore needs to revise it going into the budget review.
He stated, “as we speak now inflation is almost 30%, 29.8% what it means is that we cannot get the 8%. Clearly, that is out of the bar. We were looking at 8-plus-minus-2%, so right now the target needs to be reviewed. Then our growth rate has to also be revised because looking at overall GDP growth of 5.8% and non oil growth of 5.9%, now on the oil sector we have seen that now the oil prices have been increasing but in terms of our netting out, that has to be revised.”
“Then the issues of revenue have to be revised because we have seen that one of the revenue anchors in the name of the E-Levy is not yielding the expected revenue. So it means that government has to revise its expectations from the E-Levy and probably try to scrap it or reduce even the percentage that has been applied for the transaction. So, in terms of the macroeconomic indicators and then issues of debt sustainability,” he stressed.
He further explained that now that government has resorted to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout then it will be prudent that, the government should begin to prioritise its expenditure in the face of the scarce resources to boost investor confidence and also to help in reducing our debt stock.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Kennedy Zongbil|Bolgatanga|Ghana
