Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has admitted that Ghana’s debt level has risen but for a good reason.
The second gentleman of the land said the debt level has gone up but the economic management has not gone down.
He indicated that although the debt level has increased, the government has maintained prudent debt levels.
Dr. Mahamudu noted that the government has managed its debt properly as compared to the previous government.
Bad management of the debt level he noted could affect the interest rate, inflation, and growth but that has not happened under the NPP.
He said economic management thrives on these variables and when the NDC was in government, they mismanaged the debt level such that we had a very high-interest rate, very high depreciation of the cedi and low growth.
That was the legacy NDC left us, he stressed.
He added that by 2016, growth was low and the NDC had to run to the International Monetary Fund for support.
However, despite the high level of debt, the NPP has maintained growth.
That is the difference in economic management. There is one that is incompetent and there is one that is competent, he posited.
He said this when he joined some national, regional, and constituency executives of the NPP to attend the Central Regional TESCON Conference yesterday, Saturday, August 7, 2021.
He described the event as an inspiring occasion to see the renewed energies of our young gallant intellectual base poised for grassroots party mobilization.
Ghana’s public debt stock shot up by ¢27.8 billion in April 2021 and May 2021 to ¢332.4 billion, Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana stated in July.
This is equivalent to $57.9 billion, about 76.66 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
In March 2021, the total debt stock stood at ¢304.6 billion.
The increase according to the Central Bank was due to the $3 billion Eurobond raised in March 2021 as well as the huge borrowing on the domestic market.
In April 2021, the public debt stock was ¢328.0 billion.
This meant that ¢23.4 billion new debt was added to the total debt stock.