Business News of Thursday, 6 February 2020Source: Graphic.com.gh2019 Deficit overshoots target, Economists fault poor revenue inflowsKen Ofori-Atta, Finance MinisterThe government overshot its projected budget deficit target by 100 basis points last year after spending cuts failed to fully offset revenue shortfalls, provisional data on the execution of the 2019 budget has shown. The 2019 budget deficit target was originally pegged at 4.2 per cent of GDP in that year’s revenue and expenditure estimation tool. This is the second year in a row that the government has missed its budget deficit target on account of spending cuts failing to fully neutralise the impact of the sluggishness in revenue inflows. Prof. Quartey described the deviations in revenues, expenditures and the budget deficit as “marginal and reasonable”. Poor revenue showingDr Boakye added that the provisional data confirmed that the government had been “performing poorly” on revenue mobilisation.

Source: GhanaWeb February 06, 2020 08:15 UTC