Ghana’s economy gave indications of serious difficulties even before COVID-19 struck and the World Bank’s country chief has been unequivocal that our financial difficulties endured even before the pandemic, the Communications Director of National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has said.
His reasons come after Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, prior asserted the new ascent in product costs isn’t because of the public authority’s clumsiness.
He credited this to outer causes outside the NPP ‘s control.
Dr. Bawumia accused the Russian-Ukrainian emergency at an official Q&A event in Kasoa, Central Region.
“The Russia-Ukraine war has pushed up products costs. Together, Russia and Ukraine send out 30% of the world’s wheat. The more extended the battling endures, the more food supply interferences. It will likewise ruin worldwide
“The AfDB says wheat costs have ascended by 62% since the battling started. Since the contention started, the cost of compost has significantly increased, and the cost of corn has ascended by 36%. In Ghana, 60% of our all out iron mineral and steel imports come from Ukraine.
“Russia supplies 30% of Ghana’s grain imports, half of flour, and 39% of manure. So the Russia-Ukraine struggle straightforwardly influences us. Tragically, we have no clue about when it will end. The overall ascent in gas costs is an obstacle,” Dr. Bawumia expressed.
Sammy Gyamfi responding to the advancement recorded five motivations behind why the public authority shouldn’t fault COVID-19 and the contention in Russia and Ukraine for its self-caused financial troubles.
He said: “Ghana’s economy gave indications of serious difficulties even before COVID-19 struck. The World Bank’s country chief has been vehement that our financial difficulties continued even before COVID.
For example, before COVID-19 was kept in Ghana in March 2020;
I) the Public obligation had expanded from GHS120 billion out of 2016 to GHS225 billion, addressing an ostensible increment of GHS105 billion in the country’s obligation stock;
II) our Debt to GDP proportion had expanded from 57% in 2016 to 64% in 2019:
III) Interest installment had expanded from GHS11 billion of every 2016 to GHS37 billion out of 2019;
IV) spending plan shortage had hit 7.5% in 2018 and 7% in 2019 despite the fact that the public authority attempted to cover it from individuals by asserting it was 4.8%. It’s informative to take note of, that the 2019 spending plan shortfall of 7% was over the financial obligation limit of 5%;
V) the Ghana Cedi in 2019 saw a devaluation of 12.9%. This was before COVID-19. The cedi devalued by 9.6% in 2016 regardless of the serious difficulties the nation was faced with.
VI) Growth rate for the development area declined from 8.4% in 2016 to – 8.5% in 2019 and the assembling area declined from a development pace of 7.9% in 2016 to 6.5% in 2019 under the much-promoted 1D1F drive.
2. Despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Ghana’s economy, its general effect on charge income has been inconsequential.
* In 2019 preceding COVID, the Ghana Revenue Authority rounded up income of GHS43.9 billion.
* In 2020 when COVID struck, the public authority projected charge income of GHS47.2 billion, reexamined same to GHS42.7 billion, and surpassed its updated focus by gathering a sum of 45.3 billion toward the year’s end.
* In 2021, the public authority projected charge income of GHS57.055 billion yet recorded a sum of 57.32 billion (I.e GHS265 million more projected charge income).
3. The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia has had near GHS30 billion cedis (identical to about US$5 billion) to oversee and moderate the effect of COVID-19, which has been all generally squandered on political race related costs. Our companions, for example, Côte D’Ivoire, Benin, Togo et al, did now get as much as US$5 billion to oversee COVID-19 yet have shown improvement over Ghana.
4. The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has had income from three (3) oil fields with everyday creation expanding from around 70,000 barrels in 2016 to around 170,000, combined with high item (oil, gold, and cocoa) costs on the global market. On the whole, this Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has had absolute income of over GHS500 billion in the last five (5) years, when contrasted with the measly GHS200 billion that gathered to the NDC/Mahama government. Their monetary blunder and inefficiency have driven us into another IMF program. Any administration, that has approached over GHS500 billion in income despite everything breakdowns the economy with the end result of requiring an IMF bailout, should be the most terrible government since the beginning of time.
5. Coronavirus has impacted all nations on the planet Ghana. In any case, while our friends like Benin, Togo, Côte D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and so on were truly mindful by they way they spent in 2020 to oversee and moderate the effect of the pandemic on their economies, in this manner recording shortfalls of underneath 7% and Debt to GDP proportions of beneath 65%, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government acquired unnecessarily and spent wildly for political race purposes subsequently recording a record-high deficiency of 15.7% and a Debt to GDP proportion of 78% in 2020.
“In the year 2020 when the COVID pandemic struck, Burkina Faso recorded a shortfall of 5.7%; Côte D’Ivoire recorded a deficiency of 5.6%; Nigeria recorded a shortage of 5.8% and Senegal recorded a shortfall of 6.4%. Be that as it may, Ghana alone recorded a shortage of 15.7% due to the crazy political decision driven costs and wastage the NPP-Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government participated in.
“How do COVID and the four (4) months old Russia-Ukraine war leave Nigeria, Benin, and so on to go after just Ghana?”
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