Publishing wrong claims about economy not helpful – Finance Ministry

The Ministry of Finance has urged the general public to check with them on issues relating to the economy and macroeconomic data before making public pronouncements.

The Ministry described as false and misleading, report by the fact-checkghana.com of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) suggesting that Government has shared different macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Factcheck-ghana.com has said it crosschecked the data submitted to the IMF by Ghanaian authorities and what has been previously shared with Ghanaians and published by the Ministry of Finance.

“Based on the figures, we conclude that indeed, the data presented by the government to the IMF are different from those in budget statements.

“The fact-checking team found disparities between the data published in the statement of the IMF and data from the Budget Statements of 2019 and 2020 that the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, presented to Parliament.”

But the Finance Ministry urged the public to reject this claim.

A statement from the Ministry on Sunday, May 10 said: “Our attention has been drawn to a publication by fact-checkghana.com of the Media Foundation for West Africa suggesting that Government has shared different macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We wish to state that this assertion is false and misleading.

“May we state that the Ministry of Finance welcomes discussions of the economic information we provide. Such discussions help us in managing the economy. We also operate an open-door policy.

“We urge the public to seek clarification on matters they may have difficulty with and we would be happy to help resolve any misunderstanding. Publishing such wrong claims about the economy is not helpful.”