Finance Minister presents supplementary budget

Accra, Aug 25, GNA - Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor, on Tuesday presented a supplementary budget to Parliament to appraise members on the performance of the economy and revise the budget estimates based on current information.

It will also look at the challenges and outlook for the rest of the year and to seek approval for appropriation of an additional 252.85 million Ghana Cedis. "The aim of this review and supplementary budget is to seek Parliamentary approval to commit the required additional resources to address the inadequacy of the amount of monies approved under the 2009 Budget," he said.

The funds will be used to resolve the domestic interest costs and to liquidate some arrears and other outstanding commitments. Dr Duffuor said the Government inherited a rundown economy characterized by severe imbalances that resulted in a huge public debt and a ballooned overall budget deficit of 14.5 percent of GDP. The huge deficit, he said, did not include expenditure arrears and commitments which are currently estimated at about 1.7 billion Ghana Cedis, equivalent to 9.7 percent of GDP for 2008.

The Minister said the overall budget deficit, including divestiture receipts, would have been in the threshold of 24.2 percent of GDP if the arrears and commitments had been taken into account. The Minister said excess expenditure resulted in rapid depreciation of the Cedi against currencies of major trading partners during the first quarter of 2009.

However, he said, through the prudent management of the economy, the government had arrested the free fall of the Cedi. 25 Aug 09