Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has called out finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on his comment regarding the economy turning a corner in his presentation of the mid-year budget.

According to him, the finance minister’s comments should be taken with a pinch of salt as the reality on the ground suggests otherwise. He revealed that the GDP growth of the country tells a different story, especially because for every economy, the GDP is the most important indicator of the health of that economy.

Mr Gyamfi explained that if the economy is growing, then generally, the understanding is that the economy is doing well, because as the economy grows, more employment is created, and more monies are put in the pockets of people. He noted that from last year 2022, Ghana’s economy grew by 3.1%, and government’s 2023 projections for the budget presented in November last year, was a growth rate of 2.8%. The figure 2.8%, he highlighted, falls short of the 3.1% growth rate Ghana achieved last year.

“… To make matters worse, that projected rate of 2.8% has been reviewed downwards to 1.5%… How is that a rebound? How does that amount to turning the corner? It means that per your figures and fact, the economy will worsen relative to GDP growth, and we are not going to see any rebound in the stunted economic growth we have witnessed in the last few years.
“They say that the reason why the finance minister is reviewing the GDP growth rates down is that what we projected to get from oil, we are not likely to meet it. So, the bottom line is that GDP growth is going to be worse than it was last year. So, you can’t say you’re turning the corner, or you’ve turned the corner. In fact, as we speak today, GDP is worse for Q1 and Q2, – worse than what it was for Q1 and Q2 of 2022…”
Sammy Gyamfi

Furthermore, Mr Gyamfi revealed that the average GDP growth rate for sub-Saharan Africa for 2023 is 3.6%. With this, he questioned why government is projecting to do less than half of the average sub- Saharan Africa GDP growth.

“As I speak to you, this same 2023 that we are projecting to grow by 1.5%, Ivory Coast is looking at doing a growth rate of 6.2%, Mauritius is projecting to do 4.6%, Ethiopia is projecting to do GDP growth rate of 5.3%, Rwanda is projecting to do a growth rate of 6.2%… So, how is our GDP growth rate position the same as what pertains in the subregions when the average is 3.6%?”
Sammy Gyamfi

Ghana’s

State of Ghana’s economy

In light of the figures from the budget review, the NDC’s communications officer emphasized that what it means is that this year, government is not going to see any improvement in GDP growth rate, and that means “employment will suffer, incomes will suffer, and Ghanaians will suffer more”.

“With these figures, you the [Finance Minister] presented yourself and you’re saying you’ve turned a corner; you need free education on the phrase turned the corner or you don’t respect the people, or you want to insult the sensibilities of Ghanaians.”
Sammy Gyamfi

Reacting to this, Communications Director for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, contended that government has indeed turned the corner and is on the right path to reviving the economy. He stated that the NDC is deliberately failing to accept the reality, thereby attempting to deceive Ghanaians.

“I want to say that indeed we have turned the corner and the reasons for which I say this is the history of this government since 2017 to date – our record has been very clear. The economy that we inherited was in decline and was in freefall. But in the first year in office, we turned things around and started growing. We did so again in 2018, we did so again in 2019, and then something changed…”
Richard Ahiagbah

Justifying his stance, Mr Ahiagbah noted that what changed the growth of the country’s growing economy was the Covid-19 outbreak which was the “departure the NDC does not want to accept and when they do, they say it did not happen to Ghana alone”.