Government adds GH¢3billion to public debt every month – MP

Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central Constituency Isaac Adongo has punched holes in the recent assertion by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia that the economy is growing.

Mr Adongo said Dr Bawumia did not paint a true picture of the nature of the economy. At a media encounter last Tuesday at the presidency, Dr Bawumia asserted that the economy will not be burdened by the recent borrowings because they are strategic.

Though the Bolga MP agrees with the former deputy central bank governor that the economy has grown since the current government took over in January, the margin of growth proves that there is a slowdown, he said.

Comparing the same period to last year, when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power, apparently its last year in charge, Mr Adongo said the mining sector, among others, recorded substantial growth.

He maintained that the real sector, without oil, even recorded growth better than what is being witnessed under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.

The NDC MP said statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service suggest that Ghana’s public debt, for instance, continues to grow. For the first quarter, he cited, government added GH¢5 billion to the country’s debt.

He added that in the first five months of President Akufo-Addo’s reign, GH¢15 billion has been added to the public debt. “What that means is that we are adding GH¢3 billion to our public debt every month,” he said on TV3’s New Day on Saturday.

He said the situation is increasing the debt-to-GDP ratio day-in day-out.

“So you have to look at the economy from the right perspective,” he stressed, challenging Dr Bawumia, who is the Chairman of the government’s economic management team. He called for more work to be done by the current administration to save Ghana from further economic downturn. “I believe that there is a lot of work to be done in order to develop the real sector minus oil.”