Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Minister in Charge of Government Communications, has claimed that the impending budget presentation on March 11th will reveal that the economy inherited by the current administration is in a worse situation than when they left in 2016.
Speaking on JoyNews’s Newsfile on Saturday, March 1st, he refuted allegations made by former Deputy Finance Minister Dr Stephen Amoah that the economy was in better shape before the new administration took office.
“If Stephen Amoah said the economy we inherited is better than the one we left in 2016, it is palpably untrue,” he told reporters.
Kwakye Ofosu cited the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) as evidence of the economic downturn, calling it as “the harshest economic policy ever implemented under the Fourth Republic, if not in the entire history of Ghana.”
He added that “1.3 million people experienced excruciating hardship because the money they expected from the government after purchasing bonds did not arrive.” They had to accept significantly lower interest rates and longer maturities.
He also mentioned that there is a good reason why the President did not focus on economic data in his State of the Union address (SONA).
“There are approximately 18 indicators, and the finance Minister will go into greater detail about the exact indicators when he presents the budget on March 11th. And if you remove the growth rate, the remainder are worse than what they inherited,” he said.
He also denied reports that the previous administration left behind a favourable primary balance.
“It is incorrect that they left a positive main balance. They left a target of 0.5% as a surplus,” he explained.
