2020 budget: Government won’t overspend for elections – Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has given the assurance that the Akufo-Addo government will not overspend its budget next year despite the upcoming and Parliamentary elections.

Successive governments have been criticised for the perennial problem of overspending during election years.

However, presenting the 2020 budget to parliament Wednesday, Mr Ofori Atta the government will be cautious of its expenditure despite the elections.

“2020 is an election year. I will like to take this opportunity to inform this August House on behalf of the President that all the needed resources required shall be marshalled for the Electoral Commission to ensure that we have a free credible and fair election. Ghana remains one of the most peaceful elections in the world and we intend to maintain it.”

The finance minister stressed 2018 has been good for the country.

“This is the year that one can confidently say that God’s blessings of the hard work is beginning to manifest, putting us on a positive trajectory for sustained lift,” Mr Ofori-Atta said on Wednesday when he presented the 2020 Budget to Parliament.

He continued: “I say so because we have won some painful but necessary battles for God and country. We have stabilised the microeconomic turbulence that was all too regular a feature in the management of the national economy. We have delivered on our flagship programme. The Gains made so far are significant and it is indeed to the glory of God,” he said.



He said the inflation rate has fallen from 15.4 per cent in December 2016 to 7.6 per cent in September 2019, the lowest since March 1992 adding that the 91-day treasury bill rate also fell steadily from nearly 17 per cent in December 2016 and now stands at 14.7 per cent;

“The fiscal deficit has declined from 6.5 per cent of GDP in 2016 to 4.5 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2019; On the external front, the trade deficit has improved from US$1.8 billion in 2016 to a surplus of US$2.6 billion in August 2019” he told the Parliamentarians.