{"id":603021,"date":"2019-03-28T15:05:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T15:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n

The Finance Minister\u2019s claim that Ghana\u2019s exit from another IMF program is an attestation of the NPP government\u2019s superior handling of the economy did not go down well with opposition NDC MP Fifi Kwetey.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In a seven-minute rant, the Ketu South MP described Ken Ofori-Atta\u2019s analysis of the economy as akin to that of a party footsolider.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The opposition MP, a former deputy Finance Minister,\u00a0first picked an issue with Finance\u2019s Minister\u2019s claim, Ghana signed up for a three-year IMF Extended Credit Facility in 2015 to fill a $930m gaping hole in the economy.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand if it is coming from a footsoldier but to come from a Minister of Finance, it\u00a0 is absolutely unacceptable\u201d, he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That figure, Fifi Kwetey argued, is too measly and paltry to have compelled the NDC government to invite an IMF bail-out.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is especially so because, he said, the NDC administration under Mahama had spent much more on infrastructure to consider a lack of $930m great enough for an IMF bail-out.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But his main issue was what he saw as an attempt by the government to claim a crown of \u201ceconomic messiahship\u201d as Ghana leaves the IMF program in 2019.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He said history does not give the NPP that tittle because shortly after leaving the IMF in 2006, the NPP government under President John Kufuor, cast off fiscal restraint and embarked on reckless spending.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite a budget deficit target of about 4% in 2008, the NPP government hit a 15% deficit, a 11% miss, which he called the highest in history.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n