Thursday , March 28 2024

2018 BUDGET STATEMENT TO CREATE EMPLOYMENT FOR THE MASSES-MINISTER OF FINANCE

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Honourable Ken Ofori Atta has presented the 2018 Budget Statement which is set to create employment for the youth and general public.                                                                                  The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is set to employ 100,000 graduates under the President Special Initiative Programme and also health trainee allowance has been restored to cover 54,840 trainees.                                       The structure of the economy broadly remains unchanged with continued dominance of the service sector. The share of services in overall output is estimated at 55.9 percent, a marginal decline from 56.8 percent registered in 2016. The share of industry is estimated at 25.6 percent, compared with 24.3 percent in 2016, while that of agriculture is estimated at 18.5 percent. The policy rate now 21 percent from a peak 26 percent in 2016.                                  The government envisages a Ghana beyond foreign aid. The cedi remains relatively stable against all other currencies. The 2018 Budget Statement presented by the Finance Minister in the honourable house at the floor of Parliament is the third budget in the 2017 financial year. The first one was in March, the second, the mid year performance review and now, the 2018 Budget dubbed ‘Adwuma Budget’.                                                                                         The Finance Minister says he has the cooperation of the Parliament house in passing a number of bills in determined efforts to put the economy back on a sound footing. Honourable Ken Ofori Atta stated that on behalf of the President, I wish to thank this august house for all the support. Mr. Speaker, in March when I presented the ‘Asempa Budget’ I indicated to this House our commitment to take deliberate, strategic steps, with the required discipline, to fix the economy.                                                                                                                                                                       Such were the crisis that we were expected to little more than to borrow more to incur more debt but not for the purpose of growing the economy but rather for servicing a fast increasing debt. Thankfully, President Akufo-Addo came into office with a positive mindset and inspire us all to see the invisible, feel the intangible and achieve the impossible.                                                                                                                                                                                                        Furthermore, the Finance Minister added that a lot has been achieved this year including restoring of macroeconomic stability, renewal of confidence in the economy, provision of reliable electricity supply, reduced inflation from 15.4 percent in December 2016 to 11.6 percent at the end of October, returned to a robust growth, with a real GDP growth of 7.8 percent in the first half of 2017, against 2.7 percent in 2016.

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