All the sectors of our economy is powered by the energy sector

; so let there be light President Mahama.

The 2016 Budget shows an economy in decline after almost seven years in government. The NDC government has launched the Ghanaian economy into the worst economic downturn than any previous government. This was the same government that claimed an unprecedented growth in 2011 with the inclusion of oil production. Today, the 2016 budget clearly shows the harsh truth that the economy is rather retrogressing than the acclaimed progress that is reiterated by the Finance Minister.

The 2016 Budget presented little to no solution to recovering an ailing economy that needs to rebuild to save businesses, the people and the future of Ghanaians. Sadly, the budget reports that government public debt stock still hovers around GHC92,161.84 million (equivalent to 69.12% of GDP) as at September 2015 even after the implementation of a debt management strategy policy. This clearly shows that the NDC government is clearly doing the opposite of what is documented under the debt management strategy policy and cannot be trusted to achieve a budget deficit equivalent to 5.3% of GDP. Thus, any mistake by you to re-elect them into power next year will throw the economy into oblivion.

Ghana is still recovering from the amateur display in governance shown by the current NDC government and may remain lost for a long time if we don’t take our nation back. The frivolous spending by this same NDC government in 2012 to retain power led to a high fiscal deficit of 12% of GDP instead of the 5.1% of GDP stipulated in the 2012 budget.

The consequences are still prevalent with the cedi depreciating by over 140% since 2011 and consumer price inflation rising from as low as 8.84% in 2012 to over 17% in 2015. This has doubled and in some cases tripled prices of most goods and services, reduced the real income of workers and increased worker agitations. Besides, cost of borrowing by businesses has more than doubled from a little above 10% in 2011 to over 25% now just because of the selfishness of one party to maintain power.

Interestingly, the 2016 budget clearly fails to outline when the power crisis is expected to end and shows a drastic decline in Agriculture growth from about 4.6% in 2014 to just 0.04% in 2015. Hence, one may not be too far-fetched to conclude that the government is not aware of the possible losses of output associated with the power crisis or serious with the food security measures mentioned in the 2016 budget. The government must be conscious of the adverse effect the current Dum-Sor is having on the various sectors of the economy and fix it. Just let there be light!

With regards to the persistent depreciation of the cedi, it is very clear that the NDC government do not have any clear cut strategy to stabilise it rather than the unbridled issuance of foreign bonds. Given that, commodity prices on the world market are expected to remain low till 2017, we expected the government to clearly name the export diversification strategies that will minimise the current vulnerability of the economy to external shocks and not pay lip service (as done in all previous budgets).

The PPP will like to state unequivocally that, the budget like previous budget is nothing but a wish list cooked by NDC to score political point come November 2016 and we implore the people of Ghana to be awake and resist this deceit.

Thank you

Murtala Mohammed

National Secretary