We did not leave a comatose economy – Stephen Amoah

Nhyiaeso Lawmaker Dr Stephen Amoah has said that the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government did not leave a collapsed economy contrary to claims by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Referring to the 5.7 GDP growth, he charged the Finance Minister to tell Ghanaians the growth that the NPP left and what the current Mahama administration will do to sustain the growth and improve on it.

“We did not leave a comatose economy for them to manage just as Mahama is claiming they should be truthful to Ghana and build on what NPP left,” he told TV33 in a pre-budget presentation interview.”

He further cautioned the Finance Minister against the presentation of a politically inclined budget.

“A politically inclined budget statement is a budget that contains extracts in the area of taxes and other policies that don’t offer sustainability that we need but just to convince Ghanaians to keep the goodwill, they should make proper holistic decisions,” he said.

Similarly, Member of Parliament for Tano North, Dr Gideon Boako has said that Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson must acknowledge that the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government left behind a buoyant economy.

He indicated that the economy left behind by the Akufo-Addo administration was worth GHS 1.2 trillion,  per data from the Ghana Statistical Service.

He urged the Finance Minister to let Ghanaians know the progress of work done by the previous Akufo-Addo administration and also indicate what he would do to add on to the growth.

“I expect the Finance Minister to be candid and appreciative of the situation, the strides we have we made and what he is going to add. I also want him to deal with verified data.

“You [Mahama government] are inheriting GHS 1.2 trillion, that is the economy that Akufo-Addo and Bawumia left for President Mahama,” he said in a prebudget penetration interview with TV3 on Tuesday, March 11.

Dr Boako earlier said that the recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures confirm that the rebound in the economy was real.

His comment was after Provisional data from the Ghana Statistical Service indicated that Ghana’s economy expanded by 5.7% in 2024, higher than the revised 3.1% growth rate in 2023.

However, growth in the fourth quarter of 2024 slowed to 3.6%, down from 7.2% in the third quarter, reflecting a loss of momentum despite ongoing economic resilience.

The slowdown in Q4 was largely driven by weaker growth in the Industry sector, which expanded by just 0.2%.

A significant factor was the sharp contraction in mining and quarrying, which accounted for about 43% of the Industry sector’s total value.

The Services sector remained the largest contributor to GDP, representing 49.2% of total output, followed by Industry (31.9%) and Agriculture (19.0%).

At constant 2013 prices, Ghana’s oil GDP for Q4 2024 stood at GH₵53,137.0 million, while non-oil GDP was GH₵50,262.5 million. In nominal terms, GDP at basic prices reached GH₵308,086.5 million.

In a post on his Facebook page titled “NPP delivers: Ghana wins” on Monday March 10, a read before the 2025 budget presentation by the Finance Minister, Dr Boako said, “The Ghana Statistical Service in today’s announcement puts Ghana’s real GDP growth for 2024 at 5.7%. The budget target was 3.1% revised to 4%. With this GDP figure out, our new public debt to GDP ratio for 2024 now stands at 61.8%.

“This is what the Finance Minister is expected to announce in the budget that will be presented tomorrow. This is a massive drop in the public debt to GDP ratio from 80.4% in 2020. This is also below the pre-COVID-19 level when the debt-to-GDP ratio was 65.7%. With these developments, the NPP government’s debt management strategy worked perfectly and quickly restored the debt sustainability of the country.”

This means that Ghana could reach the debt sustainability target of 55% under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme earlier than the planned 2028 target year if only the new government continues to implement the debt management strategy.

“The release of GDP figures also confirms that the rebound in the economy was real,” he added.

“A GDP growth of 5.7% in 2024 has been the highest since 2020. It follows the recovery in 2023 when the economy grew by 2.9% above a target of 1.5%.

“The economy defied all odds and posted this appreciable growth despite coming from a global economic crisis between 2020 and 2022.”

Dr Boako further noted that the NDC, since assuming government, has been claiming the economy was badly managed by the NPP.

“These developments showed that the economy was doing well before the NDC took over. We have also picked up intelligence about data manipulation in the fiscal outturn for 2024 as the Minister for Finance is trying hard to manufacture a narrative to support the NDC’s baseless claims of inheriting a bad economy. The Minister should be candid enough to report only verified data as his primary responsibility is to make payments only based on verified claims,” he said.