NPP Parliamentary candidate Kojo Oppong Nkrumah wants IMANI to properly study Dr. Bawumia’s an economic analysis before offering a critique of the vice-presidential candidate’s work.
Suggesting that IMANI’s response was not thorough enough, the NPP candidate for Ofoase Ayirebi constituency in the Eastern region observed that “it appears as if they are in a hurry to punch holes”.
“I don’t want to be uncharitable to my good friends IMANI…[it] is an organisation I very much respect. If you look at the speed they delivered this response…they are in a hurry”, the former broadcaster noted.
Less than 24 hours after a lecture addressed by the 2016 NPP Vice-Presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, IMANI Ghana released a 4-page response.
It pointed out seven claims it believes are “an unfair interpretation of data for partisan advantage” and also endorsed 12 claims as accurate.
The think-tank also stated its position on five policy pledges made by the former deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana Dr. Bawumia.
In one of the criticisms, IMANI challenged Bawumia’s claim that “average lending rate is now about 40%, which is worse than the situation under the NDC”.
IMANI believes that “this is another claim that is rather hard to ground without complex mean rate analysis over aggregate periods. The CEPA graph below depicting average lending rates between the beginning of 2006 and the end of 2014 shows that on average the rate dynamics have been tepid and hard to compare secularly”
But responding to the critique, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah indicated that it is not enough for IMANI to question the model or formula used by Bawumia to arrive at his conclusion.
He wants the policy think-tank to also demonstrate that Bawumia was wrong by offering what it believes is the correct figure or formula.
“When you use this formula, what was the answer they got and does that answer depart from the substance the argument Dr. Bawumia is making?”
“When they mention the mean rate variable, did they do the computation for you? he asked host of Joy FM/Multi TV news analysis show Newsfile.
According to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, he has used some of the computations adopted by IMANI Ghana and has arrived a similar conclusion that Ghana is on the wrong path.
“The way they have managed things, the results today is at variance with what they set for themselves” he said referring to government’s failure to meet its own fiscal objectives spelt out in GSGDA II medium term strategy for 2014 to 2017.
According to Bloomberg report, Ghana cut its economic growth forecast for 2016 to the lowest rate in more than three decades as the country reduced its targets for oil and gold production.
West Africa’s largest economy after Nigeria will likely expand 3.2 percent this year after growing 3.9 percent in 2015, Finance Minister Seth Terkper said in a statement on the ministry’s website. That will be the slowest rate since 1983, when the economy contracted 4.6 percent, according to World Bank data.
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