NDC Challenges Government’s Assertion of Economic Stability Amidst Fiscal Critique

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken on the government over its claims that it has stabilised the economy.

The party says President Akufo-Addo is failing to admit that his administration’s fiscal irresponsibility is the reason why the economy is in shambles.

The NDC asserts that the government cannot make the claim of stabilising the economy without acknowledging that its fiscal irresponsibility is the cause of the economic mess.

Speaking to JoyNews’ Evans Mensah, the General Secretary of the NDC, Fifi Kwetey, called out the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, stating that it is another attempt to whitewash the government’s mismanagement of the economy.

“The kind of collapse we have seen in terms of the economy is one that requires a certain amount of humility. To rush quickly and want to start beating your chest and applauding, it indicates that somehow they have not learned as quickly as they should,” he said.

He said, “by no means can you call this ‘turning the corner.’ In the first place, you can’t even call it turning the corner. A situation where inflation has gone up to over 50 per cent, and now they are trying to bring inflation down to some 30 or a little below 30, you call it turning the corner?”

Mr Kwetey further noted that the government is desperate to look good and as such claiming to have stabilised the economy.

He added, “the very fact that they still continue to let the country believe that the real reason why we are where we are is because of the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid-19 tells me that this is a group that simply has not accepted responsibility.”

Although he accepts that there were external economic shocks during the period, he believes, “those obstacles have been faced by other countries, but no country in West Africa or Africa has gone through what we’ve gone through.”

Mr Kwetey added that the government not accepting responsibility shows that they have no genuine remorse.

“There’s not even an acceptance of the real acts of irresponsibility, fiscal irresponsibility, and moral leadership irresponsibility that have brought us here. So to jump quickly and start celebrating worries me because it’s like you haven’t really learned. And therefore, if you are given an opportunity, you quickly run it down again.”