Prime Minister's Budget Framework Letter

The framework letter for the FY2009-2010 draft finance law, addressed to all ministers.

It situates the government as installed the day after the April 2008 hunger riots, which followed a surge in prices, and in a context marked by that summer's natural disasters. FY2008-2009 therefore began in difficult conditions, and the government action programme had to be directed at immediate responses to a population under strain. The emergency programme was implemented without delay with an envelope of US$197.5 million. The international financial crisis then settled in, complicating an already difficult situation. The letter states that more than a year will be needed to correct the effects of these events, and above all to reduce substantially the population's vulnerability to natural disaster and food insecurity.

The emergency programme's actions favoured two things: reviving agricultural production by putting disaster-affected populations back to work, and rehabilitating damaged transport and communications infrastructure to allow the movement of people and goods.

Preliminary data for FY2008-2009 show the effect of the natural shocks on economic activity attenuated by the emergency programme, particularly through its infrastructure rehabilitation and agricultural support components. Real GDP growth, estimated at 1.2% for FY2007-2008, is expected to fall in the range of 1.5 to 2% in 2008-2009, a performance the letter attributes to the acquisition of equipment for infrastructure works and the inflow of international aid after the disasters.