The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia of engaging in propaganda with Ghana’s debt to GDP ratio figures. 

At its Policy Dialogue Series in Accra, former Deputy Energy Minister, John Jinapor wondered how Dr Bawumia is claiming that the Akufo-Addo government has better managed the economy because the current debt to GDP ratio figures is better than of the John Mahama administration.

“Yesterday [Tuesday] Dr Bawumia was in Kumasi telling us that their debt to GDP ratio is better than ours. You inherit 56 per cent ad raise it 62.25 percent and you have the audacity and effrontery to stand in Otumfuo’s Kumasi and tell the people of Ghana that your track record is better than that of John Mahama,” he said.

During his presentation at the Town Hall Meeting in Kumasi, Dr Bawumia indicated that although the country’s total public debt has increased from ¢122 billion in 2016 to ¢214 billion, representing 62.2% 0f GDP at the end of November 2019, strong fiscal adjustments and better debt management has meant that the rate of debt accumulation has slowed down considerably to the lowest in the last decade.

He said “although in absolute terms interest payments have increased over the last two years, with much better debt management, interest payments as a percentage of GDP declined from 6.9% of GDP in 2016 to 5.6% of GDP in 2018, and 5.7% of GDP in 2019, reducing the burden of the debt on the budget.

“So even though the quantum of the debt has gone up, we are paying less as a percentage of our annual income to service it,” Dr Bawumia added.

But the has NDC questioned that analysis.

Mr Jinapor cannot understand how an increase in the debt to GDP ratio from 56.9 per cent to 62.2 per cent does not connote poor performance.

He is, however, not surprised because “if the NPP is capable of turning a very fine heart surgeon into a galamsey kingpin, they can equally turn an economist into a crack propagandist who engages in galamsey when it comes to statistical issues. It doesn’t support the facts.

“Today our debt has moved from ¢120 billion to ¢222 billion. What we accumulated over eight years, the NPP administration in three years has surpassed that mark,” he added.

He criticised the Akufo-Addo administration for borrowing needlessly but cannot show what those monies are being used for, leaving the country reeling under huge debt.