Gov't To Amend Budget 2003

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Yaw Osafo Maafo is expected to announce new policy measures to counteract the current rise in inflation. The rising year-on-year inflation, which reached 29.9% as at the end of March 2003 has convinced government’s economic managers to make some amendments to this year’s budget targets and the policies that are being employed to achieve them.
Inflation which is at its highest since mid 2001 is a major source of worry to the Kufuor government which regards relative price stability as a core macroeconomic management growth.
Government ambitiously set an end of year inflation target of 9%. However, even government’s top economic managers are taking a hard realistic rethink in the face of sharply rising inflation during the first quarter of the year, propelled chiefly by rises in petroleum products, electricity and food prices.
The Business and Financial Times newspaper says new policy measures about to be unveiled will target the curbing of inflationary pressures in the economy as its main objective. This will necessarily involve measures to tighten government’s budgetary spending balance.
However, government may also need to slow the rate at which it is seeking full cost recovery on the products and services it provides, since this has largely been responsible for rising inflation so far this year.