IMF vindicates Bawumia
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said the position of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the running mate of the New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, on the economy has been vindicated by Ms Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Advertisement
According to a press release signed by Nana Akomea, the Communications Director of the party, long before the government went cup-in-hand for this current bailout from the IMF, Dr Bawumia had diagnosed the massive failures in the government’s policy and warned of its consequences.
The release said Dr Bawumia had warned since 2013 that the forex controls put in place to stop the cedi’s slide were ad hoc, artificial and would not work.
He had also warned of the dire consequences of government policy, such as the cedi sliding to GHC4 a dollar by July 2014, and the resort to the IMF bailout.
The release said he was met with outright condemnation and insults, including a retort by President Mahama that the government would continue borrowing as the government was not borrowing to buy ‘kebab’.
According to the press statement, the Daily Graphic reported on Wednesday, April 15, 2015 an interview it had with Ms Christine Lagarde, which included the IMF chief’s diagnoses of the NDC government’s failures that had caused the current economic hardships in the country.
It said the IMF chief’s diagnoses included what Dr Bawumia had said such as fiscal indiscipline since 2012, huge deficit spending, reckless borrowing and high debt service, and low spending on investment as against high recurrent spending.
The statement pointed out that all the consequences that Dr Bwumia warned about had happened; the cedi reached GH¢4 by July 2014, the forex measures put in place were ineffective and withdrawn in 2014, and Ghana had sought IMF bailout.
Other Trending Stories
‘’It is most sad that when Dr Bawumia made these diagnoses and gave the helpful warnings, he was pooh-poohed by the government. Now that the IMF has given same diagnoses and warnings, the government is willing to go along with them and adhere strictly to the IMF dictates’’ the statement said.
The statement said it was sad that an explanation by Dr Omane Boamah, Communications Minister, sought to say that the government had a better regard for the “superior” technical skills of the IMF and other “Bretton Woods” institutions and that, indeed, was confirmation of the utter helplessness of the government.