Base-based GDP pushes Ghana into debt trap – Isaac Adongo



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Mr. Isaac Adongo, Financial Analyst and Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central

Mr. Isaac Adongo, Financial Analyst and Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central

Mr. Isaac Adongo, Financial Analyst and Member of Parliament for Central Bolgatanga, has accused the government of using recently reformed gross domestic product (GDP) data as a motivation to borrow without worrying about how accumulated debt would be managed in the future.

Rather than using growth resulting from the basic change to mobilize more revenue, Adongo said the government was being misled into thinking that the new economy was giving more money. fiscal space to further indebt.


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It's unwise, he said, explaining that he predicted a debt trap to the country and the government in particular.

He made these observations in a statement issued on 28 January in response to the country's debt statistics released by the Bank of Ghana on 26 January.

This shows that the national public debt outstanding rose from 139.3 billion GH ¢ in November 2017 to 175.9 billion GH ¢ in November 2018.

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Commenting on the topic in a statement copied to Graphic Online, the MP said he expects the government to mobilize enough revenue from the broader base of the economy rather than launching in a borrowing frenzy, as it was the case now.

"This suggests that if our neighbors mobilize between 20% and 22% of their national income to support the development of their country for current and future generations, we sleep on this income with an average of 16% of the mobilization of national income. support development, "he said.

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"The government does not seem to know that the broadening of GDP is only relevant if you can mobilize an important part of it for development. Instead, they used this to promise the world that our income is increasing and that we have found new revenue. Lend us more money for our children, the future generation, will find a way to mobilize this money to pay the lenders. It's unfortunate, "he added.

What was even more painful, he added, is that these loans are not invested in infrastructure that would benefit the next generation, but rather the consumption.

"Between November 2017 and November 2018, the government added 33.6 billion GH ¢ to our public debt. It's just in 12 months. At this rate, we will add about $ 70 billion to our public debt in two years. This means that we would have eliminated the 50 billion GES of additional income (resulting from the revision of GDP) of the debt, "he said.


"This borrowing frenzy was motivated, wrongly, by the improvement of GDP, which ensures that the large debt remains lower as a percentage of GDP rebased. It is therefore not surprising that the government finds itself comfortable with a "lower debt-to-GDP ratio" as a reason to rebadure, but misleading, "he added.

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