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John Mahama FORMER PRESIDENT John Dramani Mahama has criticised the government\u2019s handling of the economy, saying that it has resorted to \u201cunhelpful political posturing over suggestions on how to stem the downward spiral\u201d in the face of a serious crisis.<\/p>\n According to him, \u201cThere is no dispute that the Ghanaian economy is in deep crisis,\u201d a situation he said is marked by huge budget deficits, unsustainable public debt, rising inflation, rapidly depreciating currency, ever-rising cost of living and loss of confidence by both domestic and international investor communities.<\/p>\n In a statement issued yesterday, the 2020 NDC flagbearer, who is lacing his boots for a comeback, said the effects of \u201cthese have been severe hardships and suffering for the people of Ghana, especially those within vulnerable groups.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of the horrendous low point we have now reached, it is very clear that urgent intervention is required to avert a total collapse of the economy,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n He argued that despite the challenges, President Akufo-Addo and \u201chis Head of the Economic Management Team, rather appallingly remain nonchalant in the face of this serious crisis and have limited their response to the imposition of very harsh and regressive tax measures, one of which is the E-Levy, which has been roundly rejected by the people of Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Mahama believes the government is acting \u201clike one drowning and yet clutching at mere straw to stay afloat,\u201d noting that \u201cthis government has banked all its hopes on the E-Levy, which, \u201cgiven the gravity and depth of the problems that have beset our economy, is neither adequate nor viable as a sustainable response to the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n Downward Spiral<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt is painfully obvious that beyond the ill-conceived E-Levy, the Akufo-Addo administration has no viable or credible plan of action to get us out of the current economic doldrums, into which they have plunged us; meanwhile, there can be collective buy-ins from the Ghanaian people, development partners and the investor community that are being ignored,\u201d he suggested.<\/p>\n He questioned how come the nation does not have a much-needed post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan that would lay down a firm blueprint for fiscal consolidation in the face of what he termed \u201ca worsening economic situation.\u201d<\/p>\n In his view, the government must as a matter of urgency, borrow a leaf from the NDC administration\u2019s \u201csound approach\u201d toward the challenges it faced in 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cWe immediately convened the Senchi Economic Forum at which we tapped the brains and expertise of a wide variety of knowledgeable people and stakeholders and built a consensus on our economic plan going forward,\u201d he submitted.<\/p>\n He said the knowledge shared at Senchi crystallised into a homegrown fiscal consolidation programme, which his administration eventually presented to the IMF for support.<\/p>\n \u201cThe IMF agreed entirely with our homegrown strategy whose implementation restored stability to the economy and laid the strong foundations that this government, just as the World Bank in 2016 forecast, profited from between 2017 and 2020,\u201d Mr. Mahama indicated.<\/p>\n Profligacy <\/strong><\/p>\n He, however, said for the profligacy and also the reckless election-related expenditure in 2020, which undermined all the progress that had been made, Ghana\u2019s economy would not have taken the \u201ccatastrophic nose-dive it has taken and left us all reeling under hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n He stated that \u201cthe Akufo-Addo administration in 2020\/21, received and misapplied the largest windfall or bailout in Ghana\u2019s history: a $1 billion concessional facility from the IMF, another $1 billion in SDR allocation, $430 million from the World Bank, $250 million from the Stabilisation Fund, and GH\u00a210 billion from the Central Bank. This amounted to a total of about GH\u00a233 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a pity that today, the NPP\u2019s entire economic plan hinges on the passage of an E-Levy expected to raise a little over GH\u00a26 billion. How did we arrive here?\u201d he quizzed.<\/p>\n The ex-President said the government must swallow \u201cwhat is left of its pride\u201d and create a platform for urgent and constructive dialogue among stakeholders with the view to fashioning out a robust set of policy responses to the economic challenges, before we get to the point of no return.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe, in the NDC, stand prepared to aid in the salvage effort because inaction is not an option in the face of disaster. The clock is ticking very fast and the time to act is now,\u201d he posited.<\/p>\n BY Ernest Kofi Adu<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Mahama FORMER PRESIDENT John Dramani Mahama has criticised the government\u2019s handling of the economy, saying that it has resorted to \u201cunhelpful political posturing over suggestions on how to stem the downward spiral\u201d in the face of a serious crisis. According to him, \u201cThere is no dispute that the Ghanaian economy is in deep crisis,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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