Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), a major financial management powerhouse has urged government to stick to its plan of not borrowing from the domestic market to finance budget deficit.

According to PWC the advice must be heeded if government intends to achieve its ambitious macroeconomic targets and policy initiatives.

In an overall commentary on the 2003 budget made available to the Ghana News Agency, Price Waterhouse Coopers said government must also aim to control expenditure within normal resources while accelerating the divestiture programme to obtain the much-needed receipts to support planned expenditure and meet the relevant conditionalities to attract additional HIPC funds.

Government macroeconomic targets for 2003 are to meet a real GDP growth of at least 4.7 percent, an end of year inflation rate of 9.0 percent and an overall budget deficit equivalent to 3.6 per cent of GDP.

It also hopes to hit a domestic primary budget surplus of 3.0 percent of GDP and gross official reserve holdings equivalent to 2.3 months of imports of goods and services.

PWC noted that external factors such as the threat of war in Iraq, possible increases in oil prices and the continuation of the Ivorian crisis have a significant effect on efforts to achieve the goals and must be managed with tact.