The 2025 budget will confirm how bad the economy is – Kwakye Ofosu

The Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has stated that the upcoming budget presentation on 11th March will confirm that the economy inherited by the current administration is in a worse state than they left it in 2016.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, 1st March, he dismissed claims by former Deputy Finance Minister Dr. Stephen Amoah that the economy was in a better condition before the new administration took office.

“If Stephen Amoah said the economy we inherited is better than the one we left in 2016, it is palpably untrue,” he said.

Kwakye Ofosu pointed to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) as proof of the economic decline, describing it as “the harshest economic policy ever implemented under the Fourth Republic, if not in the entire history of Ghana.”

He explained that “1.3 million people went through excruciating hardship because the money they were expecting from government after buying bonds was not going to come. They had to accept drastically reduced interest rates and extended maturities.”

He also noted that there is a good reason why the President did not dwell on the economic indicators in his State of the Nation Address( SONA).

“There are about 18 of the indicators and in due course on 11th March, when the finance Minister presents the budget, he will go into details about the specific indicators. And if you take out the growth rate, all the rest are worse than what they inherited,” he stated.

He further rejected claims that the previous government left behind a positive primary balance.

“It is not true that they left a positive primary balance. They left a target of 0.5%, which was supposed to be a surplus,” he said.