Ghana’s economy has never been in good shape under Akufo-Addo’s government – Sosu

• Xavier Sosu's accusation comes after the IMF presented its May 2021 Article IV Consultation paper following a visit by a team of experts to Ghana

• The Madina MP in an opinion article said the poor management of the economy has resulted in a deficit of 16.0% for fiscal deficit management

Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu has reacted to the latest verdict on Ghana’s debt-to-GDP ratio by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Fund in its May 2021 Article IV Consultation paper following a visit by a team of experts to Ghana from April 28 to May 12, 2021; revealed Ghana’s public debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product for 2020 was 78% instead of 76.1% as quoted by government in its 2021 budget statement.

Owing to this, Francis Sosu in a write up said he believes the contradiction in figures “reaffirms that Ghana’s economy has never been in good shape under the [Akufo-Addo led] Government”

He added that poor management of the economy has also resulted in a deficit of 16.0% for fiscal deficit management.

“It must be reaffirmed that Ghana’s economy has never been in good shape under this Government. Analysis of Ghana’s economy based on official data from the Finance Ministry indicate that when the Administration took office in 2017, the economy was on a rebound with growth rate of 3.4% in 2016 as against 2.2% the previous year.”

“Hence, overall growth rate of 8.1% in 2017 gave indications of stellar economic management under this Administration. However, this was based on an overly excessive growth of 80.3% in the petroleum sector in 2017 from a decline of 15.6% in 2016. Petroleum sector growth of 3.6% in 2018 gave the government a reality check, removing completely any hallucinations of sustained economic growth,” he wrote.

Read his full opinion below: