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NPP will salvage Ghana’s economy in 2017 – Dr Bawumia

The Vice Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Mahamudu Bawumi, has bemoaned the poor state of the economy the President John Mahama-led administration is going to leave the country in before leaving office in 2017.
The economist lamented that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has managed the economy so poorly that it is on an historical downward spiral.
He is, however, confident that the NPP will salvage the country’s wobbling economy in 2017 when it wins power.
Speaking in an exclusive interview Dr Bawumia noted that the poor handling of the economy forced the government to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Ghana reached an agreement with the IMF in April 2015 for a three-year aid deal worth around $918 aimed at restoring fiscal stability to the country.
Touching on the IMF bailout, Dr. Bawumia noted that there are several flaws in the deal because the deal failed to address several key issues affecting the economy.
He explained that, “If you look at the current IMF programme that this government is engaged in, there is a big hole in that programme. There is a problem that this programme hasn’t addressed because they have allowed the Debt to GDP ratio to be increased whilst they are thinking that they are doing fiscal consolidation.”
“It’s really unbelievable when I look at it and I really question the design. It’s not surprising to me that this economy isn’t working,” Dr Bawumi stressed.
“If you see the quality of fiscal consolidation during our time and the one here, it’s like night and day. Because when we had fiscal consolidation under HIPIC, you had inflation coming down, growth going up, interest rates coming down, the private sector being crowded in [and] unemployment coming down. That is what you expect to see.”
Dr Bawumia said there is a clear problem currently because, debt is going up, interest rates are going up, growth is coming down, inflation is going up.
There is very little confidence in the economy currently and the NPP will put in measures to ensure fiscal discipline to salvage the economy, the Vice Presidential candidate of the NPP added.

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