The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has advised the citizenry to turn a deaf ear to the negative commentary from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) concerning the government and the economy.
That, the party said, was because the NDC was deliberately engaging in lies and smear campaigns against the government while knowing very well that the current woes of the country were a result of external factors and not mismanagement.
“Unfortunately, for far too long, matters about the economy have been mischaracterised by the NDC concerning the governance of the NPP,” the National Communications Director of the NPP, Richard Ahiagbah, said at a press conference held in Accra yesterday.
It was to update the public about the state of the economy.
Statistics, bad mangers
Mr Ahiagbah noted that on the performance of the larger economy, which was measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the NDC supervised a perpetual decline from 2013 to 2016 in the growth of the economy.
“In 2013, when former President John Mahama took over, the GDP was 7.3 per cent and contracted it to four per cent in 2014. In 2015, the same trajectory continued, from four per cent to 3.7 per cent in 2016,” he explained.
Mr Ahiagbah, therefore, stated that in terms of per cent change in GDP under former President Mahama and the NDC, they managed the economy so badly that it shrank by 42 per cent compared to 2013.
“All these show you that the NDC has not really done right and they have not managed this economy any better than they would like to claim, the numbers don’t support that,” he added.
Mr Ahiagbah maintained that the NDC had no solutions to the problems of the country and was only focused on regaining power through deceitful and false narratives.
NPP’s performance, commitment
He, however, noted that contrary to the NDC’s grim performance, the NPP from 2017 grew the GDP by 8.1 per cent.
“In the Real Sector, industry recorded its highest growth of 16.7 per cent in 2017, Agriculture 8.4% and the Services sectors 4.3 per cent and industry grew from a mournful negative 0.5 per cent in 2016 to 16.7 per cent in 2017,” he added.
He, therefore, reiterated the government’s commitment to mitigating the socio-economic difficulties the country was currently facing through the implementation of numerous interventions such as the Gold4Oil policy, among others.
“Through these innovative measures, the government is demonstrating its resolve to build back the economy quickly and restore fiscal rectitude,” he stressed.
