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Gov’t will keep borrowing responsibly – Bawumia

Dr Bawumia said “a lot of people misunderstand when we say we are going to be responsible, it doesn’t mean that we are not going to borrow money, it only means that we are going to borrow responsibly and not recklessly.”

This was disclosed by the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia while he was speaking at the closing ceremony of the two-day National Policy Summit on Trade and Industry on Tuesday

Dr Bawumia said they will borrow responsibly and not recklessly.

“A lot of people misunderstand when we say we are going to be responsible, it doesn’t mean that we are not going to borrow money, it only means that we are going to borrow responsibly and not recklessly.”

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“No government can say they won’t borrow money, that is ridiculous but you have to borrow responsibly and not recklessly,” he added.

When the NPP was in opposition they criticised the then Mahama-led administration of borrowing too much which increased the country’s debt stock to unsustainable levels.

However, Dr Bawumia promised the NPP government will be fiscally disciplined. According to him, the government is in the process of amending the Public Management Financial Act to limit the country’s fiscal deficit to between 3 and 5 percent of GDP starting from 2018.

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“We are very focused on making sure the macro economy is stable and we will continue with the process of fiscal consolidation. We got off the wagon as far as the fiscal deficit is concerned but we are coming back bringing the fiscal deficit from 9.4% in 2016 to a projected 6.35 this year.”

“And we are going to pass a law by amending the public management financial act to limit the fiscal deficit from 2018 going forward to a maximum of the window between 3 and five percent of GDP. That is the way forward, we’ve never done this in Ghana but this demonstrates that the government is very committed to keeping fiscal discipline so that every investor, both internal and external and every player in our economy will know that going forward from 2018 Ghana’s fiscal deficit will always be within the range of 3 and 5 percent of GDP,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ghana total debt stock has hit GHc137 billion as at May 2017.

This was contained in the economic and financial data released by the central bank at the end of its Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

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