<<Print>>An economist on Thursday made what appeared to be an unorthodox revelation in Parliament claiming the economic hardship being experienced by Ghanaians, has caused funeral donations and offertories at churches to nosedive.
Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah who is also the Member of Parliament of New Juabeng South, told Parliament that the prevailing bad economic conditions have exacerbate the cost of living to the extent that donation at funerals and offertories in churches have gone down significantly.
"Mr Speaker, the cost of living is so high that if you go to churches, collection [offertory] is going down. Even funeral donations are going down under this incompetent Mahama administration," he claimed
His claim, however, fell short of empirical statistics except some economic figures he gave to suggest the cost of living in the country has skyrocketed, adding "No wonder we can't pay our rent, no wonder we can't pay our school fees".
Dr Assibey-Yeboah who opened the debate on the 2016 Budget on behalf of the minority in Parliament, said the budget presented to the House by the Finance Minister has failed to address the economic hardship, the issue of graduate unemployment, high cost of doing business in Ghana and the persisting energy crisis that has rocked the country.
He said Ghana's inflation of 17.4 per cent is nothing to write home about noting that the "Sub Sahara average inflation is 6.9 per cent, inflation next door Burkina Faso 2 per cent, inflation next door ivory coast 1.7 per cent".
He argued that a growth rate of 4.1 per cent set by the government "is not taking us anywhere. No wonder unemployment is so high"
After 11 years of war in Cote d'Ivoire, he said, that country's economy is set to grow at 9.4 per cent this year, while that of Burkina Faso is going to grow at 6.8 per cent, and wondered what has gone wrong in Ghana saying "Where did we go wrong?
Dr Assibey-Yeboah said interest rates have gone high to the extent that the government is now borrowing at 25.2 per cent for 91 treasury bill, saying "if the government itself is borrowing at 25 per cent, what do you expect the ordinary Ghanaian to get. lending rates are also skyrocketing?"
He attributed the situation to what he termed as "a toxic mix of incompetence and management" by the government.