Ofori-Atta presents 2019 Budget today

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta will today, Thursday, 15 November 2018 present the 2019 Budget and Economic Policy to parliament in accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 constitution.

The presentation is expected to be followed by a post-budget workshop and the consideration of the sectoral budget estimates by the various committees of parliament.

Ahead of the presentation, Mr Ofori-Atta had said that the Akufo-Addo-led government has attained key milestones in the economy within its 22 months in office, despite the global economic downturn.

Ghana, he said, has been able to achieve a credit upgrade from B- to B status with a stable outlook for the first time in almost a decade, as a result of the government’s prudent monetary and fiscal policies.

Mr Ofori-Atta said that for the first time in almost a decade, the debt dynamics have declined with surplus primary balance while the country has successfully issued bonds on international markets during a global economic down-swing.

The government, the minister noted, is striving to structurally transform the economy through investment in agriculture, strategic infrastructure development, investment in human capital and a deliberate push towards industrialisation, with active private sector involvement to create jobs and wealth in order to improve incomes of Ghanaians as well as their standards of living.

Addressing participants of this year’s stakeholders’ meeting held at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region on Friday, 19 October 2018 to solicit ideas prior to the preparation of the 2019 Budget, Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the slow pace of economic growth caused by energy challenges and a lack of an enabling environment for the private sector, among others, in the past, severely affected the fiscal space and undermined the prioritisation of government’s policies.

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com