Government has reaffirmed its commitment to preserving the current economic achievements and ensuring their positive impact on the well-being of its citizens in the upcoming months.To achieve this goal, the government plans to implement further cost-cutting measures in the 2024 budget, along with policies aimed at solidifying macroeconomic advancements, thereby maintaining control over inflation and exchange rates.

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Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah shared these assurances on a Friday evening, setting the stage for the budget presentation scheduled for November. Their comments were made during the 2023 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group (WBG) Annual Meetings in Marrakech.Mr.

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Ofori-Atta emphasized, "You'll see more prudent fiscal measures in the 2024 budget to keep the macroeconomy stable so that inflation continues to go down, and the currency remains stable. That's an assurance from the government that will surely happen."Furthermore, Mr.

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Oppong Nkrumah pledged, "We'll also channel various incentives and resources into the growth agenda, catalyzing the private sector's ability to thrive," as he spoke during a press briefing.In the 2023 budget, the government introduced several cost-cutting measures, including a freeze on public sector employment and reduced salaries for some government officials, all designed to support macroeconomic stability. According to Mr.

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Nkrumah in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, these measures have already started yielding positive results, but the government intends to undertake more specific actions outlined in the 2024 budget.

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“Although we don’t have the final figures, one of the clearest ways to examine the performance of the measures to reduce expenditure is to look at the primary balance, and there’s a clear indication that we’re doing well to stay within the revenue envelope that we have,” he said.The primary balance of Ghana was 1.3 as of the first half of 2022, compared to 0.6 during the same time in 2023.

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The primary balance is the difference between the amount of money the government collects and spends on delivering public goods and services, excluding debt payment.Reiterating the government’s commitment to fiscal discipline, Mr Nkrumah said: “Going forward, our focus is to stay on that path to ensure that we don’t blow the fiscals out of gear.

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”In the country, several Civil Society Groups, Economists, and Governance experts have consistently advocated for a reduction in the number of ministers and government officials as a means of promoting fiscal discipline. However, this recommendation has not been implemented thus far.

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Additionally, they have urged the government to take a more proactive approach to collecting property taxes, provide incentives to include the informal sector in the tax system, and consider reducing the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy) rate from one percent to approximately 0.5 percent.

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These stakeholders have expressed their belief that by enhancing domestic revenue generation and implementing expenditure reduction measures, the economy can become more resilient and stable.

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