Budget: Economy to grow by 7 percent.

The economy is expected to grow by about 7 percent in the 2013/14 financial year, far below the double digit growth that the Jubilee government had promised. If you factor in inflation and the growth in population, then such growth is merely for maintaining the same standards of living, and not for lifting 'millions out of poverty' that had been envisioned under a double digit growth.
What’s more, even more crucial is whether the growth will create enough high quality jobs that will absorb the millions of young men and women without jobs. There can be such a thing as jobless growth, where even though there is economic growth, no meaningful jobs are created, as the economy is concentrated only on a few hands. As such, even more important than increasing the size of the economic pie is to address address the huge gap between the rich and the poor.

Posted in: Politics and policy