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NDC confused about Ghana's debt situation - Bawumia

"In terms of the of the dollar equivalent of the borrowed amount, this government has borrowed some 39 billion dollars in eight years. When I mention this, they either get confused or pretend to get confused"

According to Dr. Bawumia the country’s total debt at government’s rate of borrowing will hit $42 billion dollars by the end of December 2016.

Speaking at a lecture titled, ‘The State of the Ghanaian Economy – A Foundation of Concrete or Straw’, chaired by Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, Dr. Bawumia also questioned what the monies borrowed have been used for.

“By the end of 2008 following the adoption and implementation of the HIPC initiative, the government’s policy framework of fiscal discipline, the country’s debt to GDP ratio, had declined from 189% in 2000, to 32% of GDP by 2008. Indeed from independence in 1957 to 2008, Ghana’s total debt was 9.5% Billion Cedis; however; in the last seven years alone under this NDC government, Ghana’s total debt has ballooned from 99.5 billion cedis to 100 billion cedis in 2015; and a 105 billion cedis by May 2016. In fact, 66% of Ghana’s debt from independence; has been accumulated under the presidency of John Mahama in just the last three and half years.”

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Dr. Bawumia added that , “In terms of the of the dollar equivalent of the borrowed amount, this government has borrowed some 39 billion dollars in eight years. When I mention this, they either get confused or pretend to get confused; so for the sake of clarity, I have put in this document a table that shows them clearly the dollar equivalence of all the amounts borrowed from 2009 to 2016. In fact by December 2016, the government would have borrowed $42 billion dollars. The government would claim no doubt, that the book value of the debt is $26 billion dollars; but quite frankly that’s a weak argument. The only reason why the book value of the debt is $26 billion is because we are applying today’s exchange rate which the same government succeed in collapsing to the value of the debt; and not the exchange rate at the time the money was borrowed. With this major increase in the debt, Ghana’s debt to GDP ratio has increased from 32% in 2008, to 72% at the end of 2015.”

He alsocriticised the standard of living of Ghanaians under the President Mahama-led administration. He said not only is the inequality gap between the rich and the poor increasing, the poor are getting poorer.

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