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{
    "id": 1077235,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1077235/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 95,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Amb. Ukur Yatani",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury and Planning",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "allocate Kshs14.3billion in the FY 2021/22. This is in addition to the Ksh7.6 billion appropriated in the current Budget. Hon. Speaker, to enhance access to affordable medicine nd equipment for management of COVID-19 and other chronic diseases, I will later in this Statement be proposing tax relief measures on various pharmaceutical products and medical equipment. Hon. Speaker, the containment measures instituted by the Government to stem the spread of the virus and save lives, adversely affected economic activities and revenue performance. To stimulate economic activities and enhance Government’s ability to respond, we prioritised health and social expenditures and formulated an economic recovery strategy programme that targeted: First, enhancing our ability to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic; second, reducing debt vulnerabilities through a revenue-driven fiscal consolidation with a view to stabilising the debt to GDP ratio over the medium term; third, implementing targeted policy, legal and institutional reforms while at the same time addressing vulnerabilities in the State-owned enterprises worsened by the COVID-19 Pandemic; and, fourth, strengthening the monetary policy framework and financial stability. Under this Programme, we plan to reduce the level of fiscal deficit from 8.7 per cent of GDP in the current Budget to 7.5 per cent of GDP in the Financial Year 2021/2022 and further to 3.6 per cent of GDP in the Financial Year 2024/2025. This will be a 5.1 per cent reduction in 10 fiscal deficits over the next four years, thereby slowing the annual growth of debt. Upon our request, this economic recovery programme is supported by multi-lateral and bilateral development partners with the International Monetary Fund providing financial resources amounting to US$2.34 billion over the next three years. Further, in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the G-20 countries extended support to developing countries by offering debt service suspension under the G-20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative Framework. The fiscal space created under this initiative is to increase social, health and economic spending in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Kenya has benefited from this initiative through expansion of health and social services. Additionally, Kenya welcomes the initiatives under the recent French-African Summit that agreed to, among others, increase funding through the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights to African States to support economic recovery, extension of the G-20 debt service suspension and facilitate manufacture of vaccines in Africa. Hon. Speaker, I will now highlight the economic policy context in which this Budget has been prepared. This year’s Budget has been prepared against a backdrop of projected global economic recovery. This is despite the emergence of COVID-19 variants occasioning re- introduction of containment measures to further stem the spread of the virus. The projected recovery reflects additional fiscal support in a few large economies and monetary easing that further uplifts the economic outlook. This outlook is further supported by the on-going vaccination, which is expected to pick up in the second half of 2021. In this regard, the global economy is projected to grow by 6.0 per cent in 2021, from a contraction of 3.3 per cent in 2020. Closer home, due to improved exports and commodity prices, economic growth in the Sub-Saharan Africa region is projected to expand by 3.4 per cent in 2021 from a contraction of 1.9 per cent in 2020. This growth will also be supported by a recovery in both private consumption and investment as economies re-open. Like the rest of the world, our economy was not spared from the adverse impact of the Pandemic. In addition, the Kenyan economy experienced two other shocks: The invasion of desert locusts that damaged crops; and the floods that caused loss of lives and livelihoods, displacement of people and destruction of infrastructure. Given the impact of these shocks, economic growth for 2020 declined to 0.6 per The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}