Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has affirmed his dedication to maintaining fiscal discipline, assuring the prevention of budget overruns in the year 2024 as the country approaches the December elections. This commitment comes as part of efforts to ensure sound economic management during the election period.
“We have moved inflation from over 54.1% in December 2022 to about 23.2% in December 2023 and you think that did not come with exercising some fiscal prudence? The Ministry of Finance is not here to be loved, but to make sure that the community crosses the Jordan”, he told George Wiafe on PM Express, Business Edition on January 18, 2023.
He further mentioned that the Bank of Ghana is actively fulfilling its role in ensuring that monetary policy tools are effectively utilized to sustain the ongoing efforts to reduce inflation.
“We want to ensure that the right things are done going forward as a country. If the expenditure does not fall in line with the budget, I will not sign the cheque”, he said.
He emphasized that the government is fully committed to adhering strictly to its fiscal policies to achieve the outlined targets in the 2024 budget.
“I think the country is aware of the cost of inflation and cedi depreciation and we are going to do everything on our part to ensure that things don’t go bad”.
Containing inflation rate for 2024
Mr. Ofori-Atta emphasized that all government officials have been reminded to uphold fiscal prudence.
He revealed that the government has implemented stringent measures to control spending, resulting in a decline in inflation.
He believes that the right policies can be pursued to help the government achieve its end-of-year inflation target of 15% in 2024.
“If we should look at 2022 and 2023, we cannot forget about what government has done when it comes to expenditure and we intend to continue. It is an election year, we will not let our eyes off the ball when it comes to fiscal discipline”, he reiterated.