Finance Minister Seth Terkper has said his ministry and the government have always been “frank” and “accurate” with Ghanaians on the state of the economy.
“We have always dealt with the public on accurate and frank basis” he wrote on his twitter account.
His comment comes in the wake of recent controversies regarding Ghana’s real debt to GDP ratio.
IMF’s Deputy Director of Fiscal Affairs Department, Sanjeev Gupta at a press conference on October 18 said Ghana’s debt to GDP was actually 71% contrary to the 55% put out by the government through the Bank of Ghana.
His statement created apprehension among Ghanaians. A member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Kwaku Kwarteng, said the statement confirmed his suspicion that government had been lying to the IMF about the true state of Ghana’s economy and the country’s macro-economic figures.
But in a release from the Communications Department of the IMF, signed by Ismaila Dieng, the IMF clarified that Sanjeev Gupta’s statement was rather their projected figure for 2015.
Ghana is currently negotiating a 3-year fiscal bailout from the Bretton Wood Institution.
