Economy on Track - Duffuor

Accra, Aug. 4, GNA - The economy is more stable now than it was at the beginning of the year, Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the signing of performance contracts for 32 State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), the Minister said key macro-economic indicators continued to show positive signals, resulting in the gradual stabilisation in the cedi exchange rate and the rate of inflation. The Minister said as at the end of June the budget deficit had dropped to 3.4 per cent of GDP as compared to 5.7 per cent of GDP during the same period in 2008.


The rate of depreciation of the dollar/cedi rate at the interbank market, which stood at 5.4 per cent in January, dropped to 0.2 per cent while at the Forex Bureau market it fell from 6.8 per cent in January to 0.13 per cent in June.


The Finance Minister said inflation had stabilized and was expected to go down in the ensuing months.

The rate of inflation now stands at 20.74 per cent.


"On the whole it is clear that the economy is on track," Dr Duffuor said, adding, that huge arrears commitment remained a risk. He said the Government would do everything to create the enabling environment and urged the SOEs to position themselves to take advantage of the opportunities the economy offered to help to transform the enterprises from local entities to international competitive ones. 04 Aug. 09