Ghana's economy worse at present than last year – Isaac Adongo

The Minority in Parliament has dismissed claims made by government officials signaling a recovery of the Ghanaian economy which is currently under an IMF-supported programme.

According to Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo describeD the claims as false as he believes the country’s current economic situation is worse than last year's [2022].

He cited key economic indicators such as inflation, interest rates and economic growth which he says have all worsened compared to where they stood last year.

“The data is quite clear that the situation is worse today than it was last year and yet we would want to believe that last year was the worst period; that after the IMF in 2023, it will get better than last year, but the data suggests otherwise,” he said.

Adongo continued, “What they have sought to do is to compare mangoes with pineapples. You can’t take end of year inflation of 2022, and compare it to any of the inflation other than December 2023. That is how you compare apples to apples. Because the inflation that you find during any period, year-on-year is compared to the same period the previous year and we are not in December.”

He further pointed out that, "The inflation we are seeing today has different season pressures compared to December. In December we all know the demand pressures, we know Christmas comes and there is a lot of pressure on the cedi because people are looking for foreign currencies to stock for Christmas and the inflation as at now has not experienced that, so you cannot compare that to the inflation that will be attained in December."

Adongo chided government for not being transparent in painting the true picture of the current economic situation in the country.

"Again, you cannot compare food inflation in the period of harvest to food inflation in the period of planting. In June 2022, when we were in the worst situation, inflation as at June was 29.8 percent. In 2023 with IMF in the boat and we were expecting things to get better, it worsened to 31.7 percent," he stressed.

Meanwhile, the IMF and Ghana on October 6, 2023, reached a staff-level agreement after concluding a first review of the bailout package which was accessed back in May 2023.

IMF Mission Chief, Stephane Roudet, speaking at a joint press conference in Accra noted that the agreement is subject to financing assurances and Executive Board approval before the second tranche of $600 million bailout can be accessed by Ghana.

YMA/NOQ

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