Highlights of the 2012 Budget 2 UPDATE
Dr Duffuor said the Agriculture Sector grew by 2.8 per cent against a target of 5.3 per cent and an actual out-turn of 5.3 per cent in 2010; industry sector grew by 36.2 per cent against a target of 37.2 per cent; services sector grew by 4.2 per cent and contributed 48.1 per cent as its share to GDP making it the largest contributor to GDP.
He said provisional data on the implementation of the budget for the first three quarters of 2011 indicated that revenues were above the budget activity target of 8.4 per cent, and expenditures were lower than the budget estimate by 1.2 per cent.
The fiscal deficit for the first three quarters was GH¢1,132.2 million, equivalent to 2.0 per cent of GDP, compared to a budget target of GH¢2,473.2 million, equivalent to 4.4 per cent of GDP.
He said total expenditure, including payments made for the clearance of arrears and expenditure commitments for the first nine months of 2011, amounted to GH¢10,412.3 million, equivalent to 18.3 per cent of GDP.
The outturn was 1.2 per cent lower than the budget target of GH¢10,543.8 million. Total expenditure for the year, including provision for the clearance of arrears and expenditure commitments was projected at GH¢15,565.5 million, 8.1 per cent higher than the 2011 budget estimate of GH¢14,397.4 million.
On the monetary sector, the Finance Minister said broad money supply, including foreign currency deposit grew by 41.9 per cent year-on-year to GH¢ 15,851.3 million, compared with growths of 28.0 per cent and 33.8 per cent in September and December 2010, respectively.
Dr Duffuor said in 2012 and the medium term, Government's macroeconomic policy agenda would focus on three complementary objectives: preserving the gains of macroeconomic stabilization and fiscal consolidation achieved since 2009; making fiscal space for high-priority investments to spur longterm growth and development maintaining inflation in single digits.
He said the overall economy was projected to grow by more than 8 per cent, with the inflation rate remaining broadly stable at the upper single digit range.
The Finance Minister said total non-oil revenue and grants for the 2012 fiscal year was estimated at GH¢14,374.5 million, equivalent to 20.6 percent of GDP, which represented an increase of 18.1 percent over the projected outturn for 2011.
Total benchmark oil revenue is estimated at GH¢1,239.8 million. Out
Of this, an amount of GH¢877.9 million, equivalent to 1.3 percent of GDP, is estimated as government's share of the benchmark revenue, whilst GH¢362 million is estimated as GNPC's share, he said.
Total oil and non-oil revenue and grants for the 2012 budget is estimated at GH¢15,614.3 million, equivalent to 22.4 percent of GDP, he added.
Total expenditure including arrears clearance and commitments for 2012 was estimated at GH¢18,983.2 million, equivalent to 27.2 percent of GDP. The estimated expenditure for the year represents a 22 percent increase over the projected outturn for 2011. Of this amount, recurrent expenditure was estimated at GH¢11,817.2 million, equivalent to 16.7 percent of GDP and 62.3 percent of total expenditure.
An amount of GH¢5,697.9 million, equivalent to 8.2 percent of GDP was estimated for capital expenditure.
GNA