Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur says their political opponents had it wrong when they said government was spending more on interest paid on loans than investing in the economy.

He said they failed to demonstrate an understanding of basic economics at a lecture chastising government. 

Speaking at Ashaiman during the launch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)'s Greater Accra Zonal Campaign team Sunday, Mr Amissah-Arthur criticised 'their opponent' for failing to understand a “simple concept.”

"Even anybody knows that if I borrow money to pay for a road and it is going to take me 10 years to pay for that loan, every year I take one-tenth of the money and use it to pay part from the person I borrowed from..." he said in response to that claim. 

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Vice-Presidential Candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia last Thursday held a lecture at the National Theater on the theme “The State of the Ghana Economy – A Foundation of Concrete or Straw" where he alleged that government despite having more resources than any government ever in the history of Ghana has been wasteful.

Also, he provided data to indicate that Ghana is spending more to service interest payments than it spends on infrastructural/capital projects annually.

However, Mr Amissah-Arthur who was once the former Governor of the Bank of Ghana said Dr Bawumia got it “very wrong” explaining that paying interest on a loan used to construct social infrastructure is in itself a capital expenditure.

“There is no way you are paying interest for nothing at all. You pay interest only for projects you have borrowed money for. So how can you say we paid interest more than expenditure? It is that capital expenditure money that you are paying as interest.”

“This one it is a simple thing that we learn in primary school. I don’t see how people who have qualification cannot understand this simple concept,” he said.

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