Tax Revenue Decline Widened 2013 Budget Deficit

Ghana�s budget deficit last year was wider than the government�s original forecast because of a decline in tax revenue and higher spending on wages, a Finance Ministry document shows. The gap is 10.8 percent of gross domestic product, wider than the 10.2 percent estimate presented in the November budget, a Ministry of Finance document, obtained by Bloomberg News, showed. The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, didn�t immediately answer a call or return a text message to his mobile phone for comment. Ghana, West Africa�s largest economy after Nigeria, is struggling to contain a government worker wage bill that consumes 70 percent of tax revenue as the price of gold, the country�s biggest export, dropped last year for the first time in more than a decade. Ghana�s fiscal gap will probably remain above 10 percent for a third year in 2014, putting pressure on the nation�s rating, Moody�s Investors Service said in a note on February 14. Fitch Ratings cut Ghana�s credit rating by one level to B, five below investment grade in October. In another development, the Bank of Ghana (BoG), on Friday, said that the yield on its 91-day bill rose to 21.0825 percent at its February 21 auction from 20.7851 percent at the last auction. The Bank said GH�501.66 million ($199 million) worth of bids for the 91-day paper were accepted at the auction out of a total GH�524.18 million of bids tendered.