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{
    "id": 102526,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/102526/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 270,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Baiya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 8,
        "legal_name": "Peter Njoroge Baiya",
        "slug": "peter-baiya"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Mr. Temporary Chairman, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I would want to begin by thanking the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance for presenting a Budget that was thematically coherent and very elaborate. It set out to take the country forward in terms of the background of anticipated economic recovery, particularly following the decline that this country experienced as a result of post-election violence and also the drought that we experienced last year. The Minister noted quite well that the background of rains last year, which have continued to this time, provided an overall environment in which the country can make huge strides in terms of economic recovery and sustained growth. Nonetheless, I still feel that there are serious concerns when hon. Members say that the Budget, as presented, was over-ambitious. This stems primarily from some of the assumptions that were apparent on the Minister‘s presentation. For instance, while reviewing the global economic scenario, the Minister projected that the world economy was expected to pick up from a growth rate of 0.6 per cent registered in the last financial year to about 4.5 per cent. That is a very huge anticipation. He did not spell out measures to be taken, especially on the global scene to base that expectation on. But it is also clear from anybody who has been following what has been going on at the world economy level since the economic and financial meltdown took place in 2007/2008, starting from America. The world Government, especially of the developed economy experienced serious crisis when their banking system came down collapsing forcing those governments to embark on bailouts which meant that they had to take money from their own Treasuries to support those banks. That process has reached a pace where all these governments are experiencing serious debt problems. These problems are impacting negatively on countries such as Greece, Spain, Iceland and the rest. Right now, most governments are now embarking on austerity measures. They have abandoned stimulus programmes. These austerity programmes entail cutting on social spending on matters such as education, health and so on with a view to bridge the deficit. With that kind of background, it is not apparent, how they are going to sustain this growth from 0.6 to about 4.5. Based on that, we expect that there will be a lot of challenges on the world economy. The expectation that we will raise the borrowed amount of about Kshs80 billion from foreign sources may really not hold. We may also experience problems, if the world economy is also experiencing contraction in terms of other aspects of horticultural exports and tourism. These are all issues the Minister was referring to severally on the world scene. They have not really been factored in terms of the Budget. That is why the projected revenue growth looks ambitious and may not hold in the long run."
}