2019 Budget To Be Presented On Nov.15

The 2019 budget will be presented in Parliament on November 15, 2018, as Speaker Mike Ocquaye has confirmed.

“The 2019 budget will be presented by the Minister of Finance on Thursday, November 15, November 2018. This will be followed by the Post-Budget Workshop and the consideration of the sectoral budget estimates by the committee of the House and other related plenary activities of the budget statement and government economic policy statement 2018”, he announced this in his welcome address during the resumption of the third meeting of the second session of Parliament on Tuesday.

Abena Osei Asare, Deputy Minister of Finance has also disclosed in an interview with B&FT that the budget is being worked on but reckons “government will come out with policies and programmes that will sustain the good progress we have made”

Several analysts believe that the 2019 budget will capture the government’s industrialization drive and infrastructure projects, government’s plan of raising the US$50 billion century bond among other things.

The IMF says the 2019 budget would need to address persistent revenue shortfalls and start tackling decisively the issue of exemptions.

The 2019 Budget Statement and Economy Policy is key as the IMF bailout programme will end in April 2019, from an initial deadline of April 2018, after the NPP government agreed to an extension of the program.

Meanwhile, according to the Fund, Ghana’s growth prospects remain strong, supported by robust oil and cocoa production.