Economy in crisis because govt ‘cooks’ own economic data - Ato Forson

Former Deputy Finance Minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has warned that the Akufo-Addo might default in paying its debts.

The Ranking Member of Parliament Finance Committee who was reacting to the 2021 budget statement on TV XYZ Morning Update indicated that the government continues to misreport public debt figures which has resulted in the country facing difficulties.

“We have not sold our assets but we’ve been borrowing so all of this must reflect in the public debt,” Ato Forson said as he projected that the country may not be able to pay the debts.

“You recall that we left office with 120.3 billion Ghana cedis as 2017 January, that was the numbers. In fact, at the end of 2017 public debt jumped to 242.5 billion Ghana cedis and then the problems started in 2018 when the government claims they have run a deficit of 11.6 billion. In the end, it wasn’t 11.6 billion, apparently, the true deficit was 21.4 billion Ghana cedis. Simply put they had hidden 9.8 billion Ghana cedis from Ghana’s data,” he disclosed to host Eric Ahianyo.

To him, the government had not been truthful about the public debt which has now been exposed and the Akufo-Addo administration now has to impose more taxes on citizens to deal with the budget deficit.

“Today we find ourselves in the situation that if care is not taken, Ghana may default in paying the debts,” Ato Forson added.