BUDGET OF HOPE (NOV 19, 2010)

Yesterday, the Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, delivered the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government for the fiscal year 2011 to Parliament.
The 2011 Budget is on the theme, “Stimulating Growth for Development and Job Creation”.
It would be recalled that on November 18, 2009 Dr Duffuor presented the second budget statement of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government based on the government’s vision of a “Better Ghana” to the House, which budget was based on growth and economic prosperity anchored on creating opportunities for improved standard of living for all Ghanaians.
The “Better Ghana” agenda was crafted in a way to achieve, through the implementation of sound, prudent economic policies, stability and stimulate growth within an environment of good governance.
Two years after the implementation of the 2009 Budget, the economy, despite many challenges, has shown strong resilience and stability.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 4.1 per cent outstrips the sub-Saharan growth of 2.0 per cent.
Fiscal deficit reduced significantly from 14.5 per cent of GDP on cash basis at the end of 2008 to 9.7 per cent GDP in 2009.
Inflation has gone down in 16 consecutive months from 20.74 per cent at the end of June 2009, reaching 9.38 per cent in October 2010, the lowest in the last two decades, while gross international reserves of $3,973 million at the end of October 2010 have exceeded three months of import cover, compared to reserves of $2,036.2 million at the end of December 2008 which could barely cover two months of import cover.
The cedi has also strengthened and appreciated by 0.1 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 5.4 per cent against the US dollar, the British pound and the euro, respectively.
From the interim growth figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service and the oil and gas production scheduled to begin early December, one can confidently state that the country is ready to make the transition from stability to accelerated growth.
In fact, whatever has been achieved so far is the result of our collective efforts towards good governance since the beginning of the Fourth Republic.
We believe that the theme for the 2011 Budget was chosen to focus attention on the need to propel the economy for the further growth and development of our nation.
It stands to reason that the government will focus on major growth-oriented programmes and projects that will improve and sustain Ghana’s middle income status achieved barely two weeks ago.
It is our expectation that the government will invest in the areas of energy, road and rail transport to further expand the economy and bring relief to the people.
These growth-driven investments should really be complemented by sound intervention programmes in line with the core values of the government to provide equal opportunities for and improvement in the social development of our people.
The 2011 budget should be a budget of hope for our people.