Accra, March 17, GNA - Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo says the Government is in full grip of the nation's economy and that prudent economic measures would soon be felt in the pockets of the people. He said the major economic policy thrust of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was geared toward the achievement and sustenance of a general macro-economic stability.

The Minister, who was speaking at a forum organised by the University of Ghana, Legon Branch of the Tertiary Education Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the NPP added that, stabilization policies had been formulated and implemented since 2001, with the aim to transform the economy into a more resilient and robust one.

He announced that the Government set itself objectives in the short-to-medium term to first stabilize and then accelerate the growth of the economy.

"Among the objectives was to achieve and strengthen economic growth through improved management of the country's resources", he said. "The trend in growth in year 2000; 2001 and 2003 was 3.7 per cent, 4.2 per cent and 5.2 per cent, in that order.

He also said the stock of domestic debt and interest payment reduced significantly.

The 91-day Treasury bill rate for instance declined from 38.0 per cent in 2000 to 18.7 per cent at the end of 2003.

Commercial bank base rates declined from about 45 per cent in 2000 to 28.5 per cent at the end of December 2003; while commercial bank lending rates also declined from about 49 per cent to 35 per cent from 2000 to 2003.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said the country's gross official reserve holdings saw an appreciable increase, adding that the national reserve had grown from less one month of imports cover when the Government took over to 3.9 months of imports and described it as the highest since the liberalization of the foreign exchange market in 1990.