Vice President, John Dramani Mahama has noted that government is on course with the reduction of the country’s budget deficit to about 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio by the end of this year. Delivering a speech at the 20th Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Ghana Performance Awards in Accra, Mr. Mahama said government also expects a further reduction in inflation which was 20.74 percent in June. The event was held over the weekend, and the theme was: “The global economic downturn; a case for marketing metrics.” He revealed that the steep slide of the cedi has been arrested without any major intervention in the foreign exchange market, while government was on target in reducing inflation by the end of 2009. “The disciplinary measures taken by government since January to salvage the country’s economy have started yielding positive results, and could help to attain a single-digit inflation rate by the end of government’s first term.” Vice President, John Mahama further stated that “We expect to also take advantage of the huge financial packages announced by the G8, and also the IMF and World Bank major cash injections of $300 million for budgetary support and $235 million for project financing in the transport sector. He also maintained that the government had to employ these measures, because even though Ghana’s major exports had held their value on the international market, the fragile nature of the country’s economy renders it more vulnerable to even the mildest effects of the global economic crisis. He further stressed that the recent oil shocks and some recklessness in the handling of Ghana’s economy from the period around 2006, created a bad situation at the end of 2008 and early 2009, where the country experienced a free fall of the cedi. “The cedi depreciated against the dollar from 93 pesewas in June 2008, to about 1.43cedis in June 2009, and also inflation galloped from about 12 percent to over 20 percent over the same period.“Interest rates also shot up to the current levels of almost 30 percent and there was a sharp drop in the country’s foreign reserves.” He therefore called on businesses that are complaining of a lack of cash in the system to bear with government. In view of the foregoing, Vice President, John Mahama emphasized government’s declaration of agriculture as a priority sector to help reduce drastically, the amount of money spent on food imports, especially foods that Ghana has comparative advantage to produce. “Government will in future, review the taxes and duties that were taken off some food imports in order to allow our local farmers to compete,” Mr. Mahama reiterated. Josephine Okutu, in an address, confirmed that these were harsh economic times, and further urged the marketers to actively partner with government in its efforts of putting the economy on a sound footing. The awards consisted of 25 categories and14 other special awards, but there was no award in the categories of ICT Company of the year and the retailer of the year because the nominated companies failed to meet the required criteria. Source: Daily Guide