The Council of Ministers of Benin was held on Wednesday, October 12, 2022. At the end of this meeting, the Beninese government decided to strengthen social spending. A strategy planned for the year 2023 followed by a projected budget of more than $4.4 billion.

The government announced on Wednesday 12 October 2023 that it will devote 45.6% of its 2023 budget to “socially sensitive actions”. Indeed, according to the authorities, this share represents a total amount of more than 1 trillion FCFA, or $1.4 billion. Part of a 2023 budget projected at 3,033 billion FCFA, or approximately $4.4 billion, up from the $3.7 billion forecast for the 2022 initial budget. According to the government, this budget has been increased by around 16% by the 2022 Amending Finance Bill. It “balances resources and expenses, in the amount of 2,956.661 billion FCFA ($4.3 billion)”.

Coming after the conclusion of a new economic and financial program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the government, this increase is justified “by the inclusion in the State budget of security measures and measures to support household purchasing power, with the aim of strengthening social spending for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations.”

In fact, in a report published last September, the IMF indicated that the Beninese State's 2022 Amending Finance Act will mark a pause in the tightening of budgets To be initially envisaged in the 2022 Finance Act when it was adopted a year ago. Thus, since February, Benin is the only UEMOA country to have recorded a steady decline in the inflation rate. In this regard, the Beninese authorities stress that “it should be noted that, in terms of orientation, fiscal policy for next year is in perfect coherence with the government's ambitions in terms of economic and social governance & Raquo;.