World Bank praises 2016 National Budget

Source: Post-Courier, November 06, 2015, 02:09 am

THE World Bank says the Papua New Guinea Government must be commended for producing a budget that has taken into account the challenging world economic environment.

The bank was commenting on the 2015 Supplementary Budget and the 2016 National Budget, which was unanimously passed by Parliament early this week.

The bank said it was also pleased that the budget had taken into account the decline in world commodity prices and reduced expenditure in response to the lower revenue as suggested by the International Monetary Fund’s Article IV which was recently released.

The bank, when asked to comment on the cuts and investments that the Government had announced, stated, "At this early stage, we still need more time to analyse the Budget in greater detail before we can comment on many of the cuts and investments announced."

The World Bank had however, expressed optimism about the Government’s intent to achieve a balanced budget by 2020, stating that it would be able to achieve this with the medium-term fiscal framework that it has set in place.

It had also stated that during the recent World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Lima, Peru, in October, the Government had requested support for a number of new projects.

"We are carefully considering these requests, and look forward to continuing to work in partnership with the Government of PNG to support economic opportunities for all Papua New Guineans," the bank said.