Continue NPP’s sound economic legacy--Minority

Page 16, May 13, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Minority in Parliament says that Ghanaians expect the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to continue the sound economic legacy left by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in order to move the economy forward.
Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, noted that the new growth rate of 7.3 per cent achieved last year was reported to be one of the highest in 30 years.
“It is important to stress that that was achieved in the face of record high oil prices, high food prices and a meltdown in the world financial markets as well as the global recession in 2008,” he said.
He recalled that in 1999/2000 when oil prices rose to $36 per barrel, the GDP growth rate, under the NDC, was 3.7 per cent, and explained that with oil prices rising to $147 per barrel in 2008, the NPP was able to achieve a growth of 7.3 per cent.
“Against this background, how come that the NDC government and President Mills are talking about economic mismanagement, ” he questioned.
He said if by that the NDC meant that the per capita income (that is putting money in the pockets of Ghanaians) had risen from $300 in 2000 to $712 in 2008, “then we would gladly with pizzazz??? and romantic glee plead guilty as charged”.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said it was unfortunate that some activists of the ruling NDC had made various statements to the effect that the NPP government’s mismanagement of the economy “caused the disappearance of gold reserves”.
He said when some of those who made those statements had turned round to apologise, the NPP thought that such uninformed statements should be put behind them to enable them to partner the government to find solutions to the problems of fiscal management of the economy.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said it was unfortunate that the President himself descended “into the arena of conflict” in London that the NPP had “mismanaged the economy” and “looted the economy”.
“Let Professor Mills be informed that it is not true that in 2009 the budget deficit was 15 per cent of the GDP. The real deficit was 11.5 per cent of the GDP”, he said, explaining that the difference was financed by revenue and not through borrowing.
He added that what occasioned the 11.5 per cent GDP deficit included the purchase of generators, fuel to power the generators, crude oil for the Aboadze Thermal Plant, the world food crisis and world oil price hikes as well as the massive infrastructure projects.
The minority leader said that it was the expectation of Ghanaians that the Economic Advisory Council, together with the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana, would sit up and show them that they would be able to sustain the economic growth at 7.3 per cent.
He described the current target of 5.9 per cent for 2009 as an attempt by the government to lower expectation so that the government could come back next year to say that it had met its target.
“For the sake of Mother Ghana, we wish Professor Mills and the NDC well and we are all watching. We only advise them that they should seek the truth,for it is the truth which will set them free, ” he stated.
A former Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Professor George Yaw Gyan-Baffour, called for a bi-partisan discussion on when the country was expected to reach a middle-income level.
He argued that for postponing the NPP targeted year for the country to reach a middle-income level from 2015 to 2020, the NDC had reversed the country’s current economic growth to that of 2005.
Prof Gyan-Baffour said perhaps it was because of that that the NDC had targeted 5.9 per cent growth for 2009 when the Finance Minister was aware that the NPP achieved 7.3 per cent growth in 2008 in the face of the world economic recession.