Government revenue up - Governor

Accra, July 18, GNA - Total government revenue including grants went up slightly to 7,601.3 billion, exceeding the budgetary target of 7,045.5 billion cedis for the first half of the year. It was 63.5 per cent higher than its level for the same period last year. Briefing Journalists in Accra on Friday, Dr Paul Acquah, Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), said fiscal accounts registered a domestic primary surplus of 213.0 billion cedis, that is 0.33 per cent of GDP and an overall deficit of 114.6 billion cedis as compared to a projected deficit level of 1,204.2 billion cedis. He said growth of monetary aggregates was still slowing down with year-on-year growth in reserve money declining from 45.6 per cent in June 2002 to 38.8 per cent in June 2003. "Similarly broad money supply growth eased back to some 43.0 per cent in May 2003 from a peak of 50 per cent in December 2002 compared with 44.5 per cent in June 2002.

Foreign currency deposits increased from 418 million dollars at the end of December 2002 to 462 million dollars by the end of May 2003. He said credit growth to the private sector picked up marginally in the first half of this year after declining sharply between 2001 and 2002. Oil imports for the first half of the year were 304.0 million dollars, representing an increase of 14.0 per cent in volume and 22.0 per cent in value over the same period last year.