Ghana’s economic stats have worsened since 2009 – Analyst

A Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford, says Ghana's economic index inherited by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in 2009 has been deteriorated.

He indicated that the economic prospects handed down to the NDC by the John Ageykum Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) have been crippled to its knees.

“I think we could have avoided so much,” he stated on TV3’s Agenda on Thursday, January 1, 2015.

The programme was reviewing the past year and assessing the prospects of the country for 2015.

Mr Casely-Hayford observed that though the NDC has ruled Ghana longer than any other political party, its record in terms legacies is nothing to write home about.

His position was, however, contended by the Minister of State in charge of Public-Private Partnerships, Alhaji Rashid Pelpuo, who was also on the programme.

“I am very surprised about [Mr Casely-Hayford’s] oversimplification of the matter narrowing down to politics instead of economics,” the Wa Central Constituency Member of Parliament remarked.

According to him, NDC’s task to manage the economy was compounded by the introduction of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP), which he stated takes a chunk of the nation’s budget.

“At the beginning of the SSPP, we were paying Ghc11 billion. You should understand where we are coming from,” Alhaji Pelpuo mentioned.

He added that it takes only an NDC government to stabilize such an economy.