{"id":105562,"date":"2015-04-06T15:45:12","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T15:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=105562"},"modified":"2015-04-06T15:59:56","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T15:59:56","slug":"imani-ghana-ifs-to-discuss-govts-2015-budget-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/04\/imani-ghana-ifs-to-discuss-govts-2015-budget-review\/","title":{"rendered":"IMANI Ghana, IFS to discuss govt’s 2015 budget review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Policy think tank, IMANI Ghana and the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) will on Tuesday organize a press briefing to dissect government’s reasons for the 2015 budget review.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”mZyGiYVqzHZoZeYwF4Wo7yggA0JRKDGz”]The two institutions noted that barely three months into the 2015 budget, domestic and international economic phenomena has thrown all the budget estimates \u201coff balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2015 budget<\/strong><\/span><\/a> was on the theme: \u201cTransformational Agenda: Securing the Bright Medium Term Prospects of the Economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a statement jointly signed by the President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe and the Executive Director, IFS, Professor Newman K. Kusi asked whether the policy strategies supporting this fitting theme \u201cwere pragmatic enough to guarantee Ghanaians a truly transformational and robust economy in the medium to long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

They pointed out that many legitimate issues were raised against the original budget therefore, Tuesday\u2019s press briefing will thus \u201cfocus on the main reason given for the budget review – plummeting oil prices and their apparent impact on our economy, an estimated loss of $700m with effects for our broad macroeconomic policy, energy targets and policy, and social policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the IFS and IMANI Ghana are of the view that \u201cthe $700m loss could have been avoided had earlier pragmatic and realistic options recently adopted to save Ghana almost $300m when global price of crude fluctuated were \u00a0instituted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Executive<\/a>
Executive Director, IFS, Professor Newman K. Kusi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe will discuss how one such unfortunate economic decision was made to make it difficult to prevent a significant part of the $700m lost to slump in oil prices,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

The media briefing will also give Ghanaians an update on the recent economic phenomena in energy, loans acquisitions by government, exchange rate fluctuations and its impact on the nation\u2019s economic prospects.<\/p>\n

IMANI Ghana and IFS also expressed the hope that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout given to Ghana will \u201creally instill the ‘external fiscal discipline’ our leaders promised in addition to making sound economic decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

They however cautioned the government and the managers of the economy to desist from engaging in \u201cunfortunate economic decisions that brought us this sad reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speakers for the press conference are; Prof. Newman Kusi, Executive Director, IFS, Evron Hughes, Founding CEO of Cambridge Capital Limited\u00a0, Sydney Casely-Hayford\u200b who is a Financial Analyst, Anti-Corruption Crusader and leading member of OccupyGhana.<\/p>\n

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By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @osamidan<\/a>
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