...Gov`t fails to stem rising cost of living as rice, cement, interest rates soar
Posted: The Chronicle Wednesday, April 29, 2009
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) yesterday launched a blistering attack on the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and its Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, for putting the country in a ‘reverse gear’. 
Four months after assuming the reins of power, the opposition party said the NDC government had given Ghanaians more than just enough indications that it was incapable of steering the affairs of the nation, as the economy is fast deteriorating.
At a press conference in Accra, yesterday, Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Suame constituency, Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, who spoke on behalf of his colleague NPP Members of Parliament, said interest rates at all the major banks in the nation, have moved up from an average of 27% in December 2008 to 31%.
According to him, the situation has made the cost of doing business more expensive, with consumers bearing the brunt of the harsh economic conditions.
The combined effect of these, he said, has led to a general increase in prices of goods and services which has made life unbearable for all Ghanaians. For instance, he said a bag of rice which used to sell at GH¢ 41 in December, even with pressure of the electioneering campaigns and Christmas festivities, is now selling at GH¢ 54, whilst the price of a bag of Portland cement has moved up from GH¢ 8.8 to GH¢ 9.7.
Though the NPP administration ended with an end of year inflation of 18.5%, the Minority Leader said within its first three months in government, the NDC administration has moved it up to 20.5%.
Meanwhile, the government Statistician is reported to have predicted that for April, the figure will go further up. For the Minority in Parliament, this does not only put their (NDC) target of end of year inflation of 12% and an average annual inflation of 15% off gear, but shows clearly that “the Ghanaian economy is fast deteriorating under the NDC administration.”
The Minority leader, who was flanked by party Chairman, Mr. Peter Mac-Manu and General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow among other party functionaries and colleague Members of Parliament, also noted “if we have Ministers of State declaring that the ‘economy is broke’, Deputy Ministers who have told the world that the gold reserves which are the spine of a country’s monetary regime have vanished into thin air and that a ruling government has stolen all the country’s gold reserves, these palpable untruths will conspire to negatively effect a country’s fiscal regime.”
Whilst accusing the NDC of peddling lies to win elections and helping to wreck the economy, the NPP said “they must now sit up and fix it, as simple as that.”
Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu could not fathom why the Minister of Finance, Dr. Duffuor, who used to be the Governor of the Central Bank, could make a statement to the effect that ‘provisional data available indicate that all the macroeconomic targets were missed’, when he presented the country’s budget statement to Parliament on March 5, 2009.
“It is even surprising that these statements will be coming from Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, during whose tenure at the Bank of Ghana, Government of Ghana cheques were bouncing left and right; 91 day treasury bills stood at over 40%; lending rates hovered around 50%; inflation reached 41%; the cedi depreciated by 50%; the Bank of Ghana refused to give licenses for retail banking except only for a few, including his own Unibank”, he said.
Under his very watch, the Minority Leader further stressed, “import cover was only two weeks; the Government of Ghana had to repay the IMF for lying about payments on our external debt, the infamous Pyram scheme materialized; Baby Ocansey walked away with US$ 1.5 million from the Bank of Ghana.”
With such a record under his sleeves as Governor, they warned him “not to be throwing any stones at all.” The Minority could comprehend a statement by Dr. Duffuor in which he attributed the increasing depreciation of the cedi in recent months to the redenomination exercise without any clear explanation.
They therefore could not but asked -“when did the redenomination exercise take place with the aftershocks being felt almost two years after the event. One may ask Dr Duffuor what accounted for the over 600% depreciation of the cedi when he served as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana?” Meanwhile, they noted that the pound sterling has been losing ground over the past 10 months against the dollar, asking whether the pound has been redenominated.
For this reason, they said “such economics should not have any portion in an era when we are supposed to be moving forward in the right direction.” “As for the Minister of Finance, we can only tell him that Ghanaians cannot afford a return to Dr. Duffuor’s performance between 1996 and 2000.
We expect Minister Duffuor to move forward in the right direction as has been promised by his government”, said the Minority Leader, stressing that “so far, his first four months as Minister of Finance have been bumpy and jerky.”
Four months after assuming the reins of power, the opposition party said the NDC government had given Ghanaians more than just enough indications that it was incapable of steering the affairs of the nation, as the economy is fast deteriorating.
At a press conference in Accra, yesterday, Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Suame constituency, Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, who spoke on behalf of his colleague NPP Members of Parliament, said interest rates at all the major banks in the nation, have moved up from an average of 27% in December 2008 to 31%.
According to him, the situation has made the cost of doing business more expensive, with consumers bearing the brunt of the harsh economic conditions.
The combined effect of these, he said, has led to a general increase in prices of goods and services which has made life unbearable for all Ghanaians. For instance, he said a bag of rice which used to sell at GH¢ 41 in December, even with pressure of the electioneering campaigns and Christmas festivities, is now selling at GH¢ 54, whilst the price of a bag of Portland cement has moved up from GH¢ 8.8 to GH¢ 9.7.
Though the NPP administration ended with an end of year inflation of 18.5%, the Minority Leader said within its first three months in government, the NDC administration has moved it up to 20.5%.
Meanwhile, the government Statistician is reported to have predicted that for April, the figure will go further up. For the Minority in Parliament, this does not only put their (NDC) target of end of year inflation of 12% and an average annual inflation of 15% off gear, but shows clearly that “the Ghanaian economy is fast deteriorating under the NDC administration.”
The Minority leader, who was flanked by party Chairman, Mr. Peter Mac-Manu and General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow among other party functionaries and colleague Members of Parliament, also noted “if we have Ministers of State declaring that the ‘economy is broke’, Deputy Ministers who have told the world that the gold reserves which are the spine of a country’s monetary regime have vanished into thin air and that a ruling government has stolen all the country’s gold reserves, these palpable untruths will conspire to negatively effect a country’s fiscal regime.”
Whilst accusing the NDC of peddling lies to win elections and helping to wreck the economy, the NPP said “they must now sit up and fix it, as simple as that.”
Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu could not fathom why the Minister of Finance, Dr. Duffuor, who used to be the Governor of the Central Bank, could make a statement to the effect that ‘provisional data available indicate that all the macroeconomic targets were missed’, when he presented the country’s budget statement to Parliament on March 5, 2009.
“It is even surprising that these statements will be coming from Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, during whose tenure at the Bank of Ghana, Government of Ghana cheques were bouncing left and right; 91 day treasury bills stood at over 40%; lending rates hovered around 50%; inflation reached 41%; the cedi depreciated by 50%; the Bank of Ghana refused to give licenses for retail banking except only for a few, including his own Unibank”, he said.
Under his very watch, the Minority Leader further stressed, “import cover was only two weeks; the Government of Ghana had to repay the IMF for lying about payments on our external debt, the infamous Pyram scheme materialized; Baby Ocansey walked away with US$ 1.5 million from the Bank of Ghana.”
With such a record under his sleeves as Governor, they warned him “not to be throwing any stones at all.” The Minority could comprehend a statement by Dr. Duffuor in which he attributed the increasing depreciation of the cedi in recent months to the redenomination exercise without any clear explanation.
They therefore could not but asked -“when did the redenomination exercise take place with the aftershocks being felt almost two years after the event. One may ask Dr Duffuor what accounted for the over 600% depreciation of the cedi when he served as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana?” Meanwhile, they noted that the pound sterling has been losing ground over the past 10 months against the dollar, asking whether the pound has been redenominated.
For this reason, they said “such economics should not have any portion in an era when we are supposed to be moving forward in the right direction.” “As for the Minister of Finance, we can only tell him that Ghanaians cannot afford a return to Dr. Duffuor’s performance between 1996 and 2000.
We expect Minister Duffuor to move forward in the right direction as has been promised by his government”, said the Minority Leader, stressing that “so far, his first four months as Minister of Finance have been bumpy and jerky.”
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