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The 2015 growth target may be timid, the inflation numbers unambitious but the 2015 budget could go down in history as the most focused budget since the assumption of office of President Mahama on January 7th, 2013. A hotchpotch of the homegrown macroeconomic stabilization policies coupled with the Senchi Consensus economic and social recommendations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescriptions underpin the economic policies of this government in the fiscal year 2015. Despite Dr Bawumia�s cynicism that after all, the government may not be accepting an IMF supported program in spite of the on-going negotiations between government officials and the officials of the Bretton Woods institution, The Al-hajj can report that by the first quarter of next year, the Mahama-administration will enter into a full-blown macroeconomic stabilization program with the Fund. The purpose of this program is to stabilize the macro environment in order to create an enabling environment for businesses at the micro level to flourish. Macro stability is necessary to reduce poverty, increase employment opportunity, cushion fix income earners, enhance the private sector and ensure social justice. As the 2015 budget itself has surmised, the exogenous shocks that hit the economy in the latter stages of the fiscal year 2013 are the causes of the current challenges that the economy faces at this juncture. The shocks are attributed to the perennial challenges in the energy sector that was brought about by the intermittent supply of gas from the West Africa Gas Pipeline and the drop in the water levels of the Akosombo Dam. These created problems on the nation�s ability to generate power for economic activity thereby affecting the growth of the economy. Again, the lack of adequate supply of gas from Nigeria also affected the nations accumulated foreign exchange reserves as more resources are needed to purchase the much expensive crude oil to keep the country running. As a result of low economic activities, the domestic revenue also suffers. Another problem that created challenges that the economy face at the moment was the fall in the prices of the nation�s primary commodities particularly gold and cocoa. About US$1.3bn was lost by the state as a result of the drop in the prices of these commodities in 2013. Moreover, for three years running, donors have refused or failed, for whatever reason, to disburse grants and loans. Despite these economic challenges in the formative years of the Mahama rule, the NDC government has been able to migrate, almost all public sector workers into the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) and cleared all the outstanding salary arrears to the tune of GHC3bn. Again, in the midst of the challenges, the Mahama administration has been able to grow the economy by 7.6 per cent in 2013 and provisionally by about 6.9 per cent in 2014. The completion of the gas infrastructure project at Atubo in the Western region is another tremendous achievement that cannot be overlooked by any objective by-stander. Moreover, the discovery of more oil filed such as the Sankofa and the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme oil fields and the accompanying gas will add additional fillip to the economy in the coming years. These, together with the disbursement of about $400m in the US MCC compact 2 under the power for Africa program will enhance power production under the new Power Ministry that will make the current intermittent power challenges a thing of the past. While critics may cite a dramatic return of the nation to slower economic growth unbecoming of an economy that posted spectacular economic growth of 8.4 per cent in 2008, 4 per cent in 2009, 8 per cent in 2010, 15 per cent in 2011, 8.8 in 2012, 7.6 per cent in 2013 and 6.9 per cent in 2014, one should not lose sight of the fact that the 3.9 per cent growth target of 2015 is realistic given the aggressive pursuit of fiscal consolidation policies that aim at reducing the budget deficit from its double digit trajectory to about 6.5 per cent in 2016 and 3.5 per cent in in the medium term. Again, there is evidence of strong efforts in increasing the pro-poor and social-intervention spending in the coming year with health and education sectors taking the center-stage while the energy sector is also getting the needed attention in order to curtail the incidence of load shedding. Under the health sector, government intends completing the following projects: the 600-bed University of Ghana Teaching Hospital, the 420-bed Ridge Hospital expansion project, the 500 bed military hospital in Kumasi, the Upper West Regional hospital, among others. On education, the Mahama government intends commencing the promised free SHS program across the country and the construction of the 200 community SHS that the government promised the people of Ghana. Apart from these, existing programs in the educational sector such as the school feeding, the free uniforms and textbooks will also continue. So it is evident that the Mahama budget for the fiscal year 2015 is targeting the nation�s most pressing needs at the moment in the health, education and the energy sectors.