Ghana's parliament on Friday approved the government's budget estimates for the 2013 fiscal year, targeting an annual growth of 8.0 percent and an inflation of 8.9 percent to 9.0 percent.

The budget statement under the theme "Sustaining Confidence in the Future of the Ghanaian Economy" was presented to the parliament on March 5 by Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Seth Terkper.

The parliament took the past three days to debate the budget before giving an unanimous approval.

Seconding the motion for approval, deputy minority leader Dominic Nitiwul gave the assurance that the parliament would play its role of ensuring fiscal discipline in the public sector.

"The 12 percent deficit in the 2012 budget is blamed on overspending in the public sector," he said, cautioning ministers of state who were in charge of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies to play their supervising roles well because parliament would no more tolerate such fiscal indiscipline.

The budget implementation for 2012 recorded a 12 percent deficit against a 6.7 percent target set by the government in its budget statement for that year.

The government projects a deficit target of 9.0 percent in 2013, which some analysts say is not ambitious.

Moving the motion for the approval, Terkper echoed the fact that the deficit which occurred in 2012 was due to the prevailing economic circumstances in the West African country towards the end of the year.

According to the budget report, the overall growth of the gross domestic product stands at 8.0 percent, with the average inflation pegged at 8.9 percent to 9.0 percent.