TUC commends government for well-regulated budget

The Trade Union Congress of Ghana (TUC) commended the government for not making a request for more budget allocation in Parliament when the Minister of Finance presented the mid-year budget review.   
    
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, on Monday told Parliament during the mid-year budget review that government had reviewed downward total expenditure by 1.1 per cent.   
    
Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the consecutive decline in inflation during the period was broad-based with food and non-food inflation declining.
    
He said: “Food inflation went down from 9.7 per cent in December 2016 to 6.2 per cent in June 2017, while non-food inflation declined from 18.2 per cent to 15.1 per cent over the same period.” 
    
The observed disinflation process was influenced largely by monetary policy tightness, fiscal discipline and stability in the exchange rate,” he said.
    
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Joshua Ansah, the Deputy Secretary General of TUC said the government decision to review the total expenditure from GH¢58.1 billion to GH¢55.9 billion was in the right direction.
    
Mr Ansah urged the government to work harder to create more employment to address the challenge of unemployment in the country.
    
He said the government should take a critical look at creating employment opportunities through alternative livelihood programmes for those who streamlined because of appropriating the economy. 
    
Mr Ansah said despite the fact that inflation was reducing did not mean so much to the low-income earner.
    
He said the outcome would be appreciable to them if there were consistency in ensuring that figures reflected in the pockets of the average Ghanaian worker. 
     
He said there was a reduction in inflation to 12.1 per cent at end of June, down from 15.4 per cent end December 2016 was very beneficial to the private sector because it would help players to plan for operational expenditure.
    
Mr Ansah said the current government demonstrated through the budget that it might not have known the reality on the grounds until assumption of office and the significant revision in the 2017 budget. 
    
He urged government to work with truth and realistic approaches to manage the country’s economy for development. 

Source: GNA