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Government has described the press conference by Vice Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia on the country's economy and the 2016 Budget presented by the Finance Minister last month as an exercise in intellectual dishonesty.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson accused Dr. Bawumia of lying blatantly to Ghanaians in his presentation.

To him, the NDC government is doing well in managing the economy by reducing the country’s fiscal deficit.

Dr. Bawumia, addressing the country's GDP Growth, highlighted that the stellar leadership of President Kufuor in 2001 and 2008 pushed it from 3.7 percent to 8.4 percent; stressing "this is steady growth and it occurred without revenues from crude oil exports and in periods where the world was seeing the worst economic crisis in decades".

He emphasized that the size of Ghana’s economy increased from some $5.1 billion to $28.5 billion, a 500 percent under President John Kufuor even in the face of global economic and financial crisis in 2007/8 with oil price reaching a record high of $147 per barrel.

He indicated in the press conference that Ghana was transformed during the period of the NPP’s tenure (2001-2008) from a low income HIPC economy to a lower middle income economy on the frontiers of emerging market status.

“The NPP’s record on economic growth compares with the uneven and recently declining growth rates achieved by the NDC Mills-Mahama, Mahama administrations. In 2009 growth rate swung down to 4.0%; in 2010 it grew at 8.0% and upped to 14.0 per cent with the onset of oil production. For 2012 the GDP growth registered 8.8%, climbing down to 7.6 in 2013 and plummeting to 4.1% in 2014. The provisional 2015 GDP growth rate is 4.1% and for the first time since the inclusion of oil revenues beginning from 2011 the non-oil component of the GDP growth of 4.2% is higher than the overall real GDP growth rate of 4.1%. In 2014 the revised figures indicate that GDP growth rate was 4.0% same as the non-oil GDP growth. In the eight years of the NDC government, the size of the economy would have increased from $28.5 billion,” Dr. Bawumia highlighted.

But reacting to the press conference on Okay Fm’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon. Ato Forson faulted Bawumia for not espousing an alternative presentation except to only compare wrong figures with correct figures.

He insisted even though he had not thoroughly read through the document meant to be the alternative budget for 2016, the figures used by Dr. Bawumia were conjured to lie to Ghanaians without stating exactly what he (Bawumia) would have done differently if the NPP was in power as Vice President and Chairman of the Economic Management Team.

Ato Forson maintained that he cannot fathom how Dr. Bawumia came by his analysis of the current economy in comparison with the 8 years of the NPP administration because to him, the NDC government under President Mahama has done well with its measures to reduce the fiscal deficit.

He recounted that the current GDP growth is 7.4 percent and without the oil, the growth is 6.4 percent which is higher than what the opposition left behind.

Touching on the fiscal deficit, Hon. Ato Forson, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency, indicated that the NDC government under President Mahama has reduced it from 10.1 percent last year to 7.3 percent this year with the projection that next year, 2016, the fiscal deficit will be reduced by 2 percent to remain 5.3 percent.

He was however certain that Dr. Bawumia is aware of the economic success of the NDC government but choose to be dishonest about it in his presentation.

“…our debt seems huge but in nominal terms, the cedi loan has reduced; in nominal terms, the dollar loan has also reduced but because you will change every debt into dollars, the debt is huge. I was expecting him to give us the alternative to this issue if he was the Vice President and Chairman of the Economic Management Team”, he charged.

“....intellectual dishonesty is what Dr. Bawumia displayed. He should have the title of his present from alternative budget to just comparing wrong figures with correct one because he did his analysis of the budget in a wrong way”.