Fifi Kwetey: Bawumia’s economic analysis shallow; smacks of desperation

Agriculture Minister, Fifi Kwetey, has slammed Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the 2016 running mate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party for “deliberately” presenting “inaccurate” economic data of the country to the public.

According to him, the former deputy governor of the Central Bank failed to cross-check his facts before presenting them because he is “desperate” for power.

Dr Bawumia at a lecture on Tuesday, cast doubts over the credibility of the data presented to the IMF by the Mahama-led administration.

“Mr. Chairman any economic and financial programme is only as good as the data used to formulate the programme. Credible data provides the basis of the analytical framework to respond adequately to economic challenges. If you have make-believe data, you will end up with counterproductive or inadequate responses to economic policies. If your data is not credible, the anchor cannot hold. With make-believe data as the basis, the best you can achieve is make-believe results which will soon be exposed as we are witnessing currently,” he said.

Dr. Bawumia explained that the inflation data on which the programme was drafted had question marks on it.

“Mr. Chairman, the data on inflation produced by the [Ghana Statistical Service] GSS does not appear to reflect actual price developments. I have raised this issue before and I have returned to it today with further and better particulars. The year 2014 was a very bad one as far as the economy is concerned”.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), subsequently admitted making mistakes in a recent growth data posted on its website.

Nonetheless, Fifi Kwetey, a former deputy finance minister, stated on Radio Gold's 'Alhaji and Alhaji' on Saturday that he was “shocked by the basic errors” contained in the presentation of Dr Bawumia.

“Most of the data he gave were so wrong and he didn’t require rocket science to know they were wrong.

“He just needed to cross-check his facts. It was so obvious that he couldn’t cross-check the facts to realise that in terms of real nominal growth, the NDC is doing much better than the NPP did in eight years.

“And the problem is that the gentleman is so desperate for power that he obviously doesn’t take time to check his figures. That’s because his people make him feel that he is a don of economics, and now; see the shallowness of the economic analysis we are seeing here from a [PhD holder].”