The National Treasury has conducted Public Sector Hearings on its proposed Financial Year (FY) 2024/25 and Medium Term Period Budget following the launch of the Sector Working Groups on August 18, mandated to develop budget proposals for the Fiscal Year 2024/25.
Speaking at the hearing, the National Treasury and Economic Planning Cabinet Secretary (CS), Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u, lauded the National Treasury team for working closely both in Parliament and also in the National Treasury in the budget-making process.
“In many cases, it is important to look at the circumstances when we are making the budget, and when a monetary policy is contractionary, then the other side of a fiscal policy cannot be expansionary,” he reiterated.
The CS urged stakeholders to keep on managing the budget-making process, and liquidity is also coming up very strongly as another application of the budget-making process.
At the same time, National Treasury Principal Secretary Dr. Chris Kiptoo acknowledged that the Sector Working Groups have finalised and submitted the sector budget proposal.
“Public Sector Hearings are meant to provide a platform for stakeholders to validate and give feedback on the Sector Budget Proposal. This allows stakeholders to participate and contribute to the formulation of the National Budget,” he remarked.
The Micro and Fiscal Affairs Director, Musa Gathanji, attributed the Macro-Economic Development and global challenges, with the latter including global supply chain disruption due to ongoing conflicts and elevated prices to increased geopolitical fragmentation.
“The other challenge is the significant losses and damages due to extreme weather events and high interest rates, which limit access to credit and exacerbate debt servicing costs,” noted Gathanji.
He also acknowledged the monetary policy stance, which remains tight to anchor inflation.
By Sinigi Rhoda
