Former Deputy Finance Minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson has debunk claims that the past National Democratic Congress (NDC) government left behind a ‘very bad economy’ with debt to GDP rate hovering around 72 percent.
According to Cassiel Ato Forson, the NDC left behind a very robust economy insisting that if the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration “continuous from where the NDC left, the suffering of many Ghanaians would soon be a thing of the past.”
The Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Essiam constituency in the Central Region was reacting to comments made by newly appointed Senior Minister designate, Yaw Osafo Marfo, who is reported to have said that the NDC left behind an economy that is ‘’seriously bleeding’’.
Yaw Osafo Marfo, speaking to journalists shortly after his nomination by president Nana Akuffo Addo Tuesday, indicated that economic figures inherited from the previous Mahama government are not encouraging stressing that the country was “heavily indebted but not poor.”
Mr. Osafo Marfo who was Minister of Finance in the Kufuor regime, said Ghana’s budget deficit is at a worrying rate of 8% higher than the 5% expected under the IMF agreement.
However, speaking on the GOLD POWER DRIVE Wednesday, Ato Forson, advised the Nana Akufo-Addo government to desist from painting a gloomy picture about Ghana’s economy.
He said when former president John Mahama took over in the year 2013, the treasury bill rate for instance was about 24 percent adding that he exited power with the rate below 16 percent.
On the issue of debt to GDP for the year ending 2016, Mr. Ato Forson, noted that the statistical service is yet to come out with the final nominal GDP rate therefore the NPP’s conclusion that the debt to GDP IS 72 percent was misleading.
‘’As we speak now nobody knows how we ended the year 2016 because the numbers we have now may be provisional so it would be misleading for anybody to conclude that the NDC left behind a bleeding economy,” Cassiel Ato Baah Forson said on Radio Gold.
He further counseled the NPP to stop politicizing the country’s economy since the electioneering period is over and it is time to look for solutions to fix challenges bedeviling the country.
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