The minority summons the finance minister on a debt outstanding of one billion GHC

Company News from Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-06-11

The minority in Parliament is constantly asking for explanations about the increase in Ghana's debt and has promised to call Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta for answers.

According to them, statements by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, that the government is managing the economy well, are false.

Nkrumah spoke to the media last week after the minority-sponsored press conference. According to them, the government borrowed some $ 80 billion during its two-year term.

Minority spokesman Ato Forson, who spoke at the press conference on Tuesday, said the country's debt profile, which amounted to 137 billion in 2016, reached 200 billion ¢.

He attributed this phenomenon to the president's culture of large loans, without plans to present or to imagine ideas that could make the economy productive.

"The national debt of $ 200 billion represents an increase of about $ 80 billion over the last two and a half years of President Akufo-Addo and has increased the debt-to-GDP ratio from 56% in 2016 to almost 58%, "said Forson. .

But the government denied that such a thing was done.

In a statement, the Minister of Information explained that a change in the nominal stock did not mean that the government had taken out new loans.

"It's also amazing to hear people who understand national accounting suggest that a change in outstanding nominal debt means that President Akufo-Addo has contracted new loans from other countries." an amount of 80 billion dollars.

"As always, the people who make the claims know that the first addition to our stock of debt is the current disbursements of the loans contracted under their regime.

"Current loan disbursements for the East University and the Tema Mpakadan Railway, to name a few, all contribute to the $ 80 billion change in our debt stock nominal, "he said.

For the minority, this explanation is not enough. At a counter-conference on Tuesday, Forson said the Minister of Information's claims appeared to be duplicity and dishonesty.

"We were very generous in respecting the official figures and not applying the outrageous principles and calculations used by the vice president and the pillars of the power plant while they were in opposition."

Mr Forson, also a member of Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam, said the minority would use parliamentary procedures to ensure better debt management.

Ghana's outstanding debt now stood at $ 38.9 billion (198 billion ¢) in March 2019.

According to the Bank of Ghana's Economic and Fiscal Data Summary – May 2019, outstanding debt accounted for 57.5 percent of Ghana's GDP in March 2019.

In January of this year, the total public debt amounted to ¢ 176.6 billion ($ 35.7 billion) and to £ 180.7 billion ($ 35 billion) for the month of February.

Figures for January and February accounted for 51.3% and 52.5% of GDP. A total of ¢ 21.4 billion was added to the public debt in the first three months of 2019.

Current debt includes the $ 3 billion Eurobonds issued by the government in March of this year.